Question

Fernando is an engineer at an amusement park who is experimenting with changes to the setup for a magnetic roller coaster ride. In one ride, there are two identical roller coaster cars (red and yellow) that start on opposite sides of a large magnet located in the center of a station. He moves both cars, so each car ends up one space farther away from the large magnet.

How did the potential energy of the two cars change? Did the potential energy of one car change more than the other? Why do you think

Answer 1

I think that the potential energy of the cars will go down because the cars are moving farther away from the big magnet. Since the pols of the cars and big magnet are opposite and not the same they would want to attract if they got close to the big magnet, but since Fernando is pulling the carts away they loose that potential energy. I also think that the red cart changed more than the yellow cart because it is closer to the magnet which can have a lot of potential energy and he is now bringing the cart away from it. In conclusion, I think the red cart had a greater change in potential energy and the two cars changed in potential energy too.