Rollercoasters Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes Eyes

-Ears Ears

# Nose Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes Eyes

-Ears Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

One, two, three!

Oh, ha-ha! Hello, there.

I'm just doing an experiment.

Playing with a ball.

What goes up -

oh! - must come down.

BLEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash,

I wonder what they're going to ask!

-ALL:

-Hi, Nina!

Hi!

We've got a question for you.

How do rollercoasters work?

Oh, that's a great question!

How do rollercoasters work?

I love going on rollercoasters,

all those ups and downs.

Why don't you come down to my workshop and we'll investigate?

-ALL:

-See you soon, Nina! Bye!

Bye!

Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one,

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

-ALL:

-Neurons at the ready, Nina!

OK. Today's question is, "How do rollercoasters work?"

Now, which Neuron do you think'll be most useful in helping us

find the answer?

It's Felix!

CHEERING

-ALL:

-Go, Felix! Go, Felix! Go, Felix! Go, Felix!

-ALL:

-Go, Felix! Go, Felix!

Marvellous! A little touch can mean so much, Nina.

Today's question is, "How do rollercoasters work?"

Because we feel lots of different things when we go on

a rollercoaster, Felix will be helping us today,

but stand by, Neurons,

I have a feeling I may need help from all of you.

Right. I need to get the workshop ready

before the experimenters arrive.

Cannie loves ice cream.

Ben loves fire engines.

Erin loves reading and writing.

But they all want to know, "How do rollercoasters work?"

So today, for one day only,

Erin, Ben and Cannie become the experimenters!

Hi, guys!

-ALL:

-Hi, Nina!

And hello to Roxanne, who's here to sign for Cannie.

Hi, Nina.

Well, welcome to my workshop

and thank you for your great question,

"How do rollercoasters work?"

So first, let's have a look at a really big rollercoaster.

A rollercoaster is a long track built with hills and dips,

but unlike a normal car,

rollercoaster cars don't have an engine.

How do they move, Nina?

Let's start with an experiment to find out!

-ALL:

-Woop-woo! An experiment! We're ready, Nina!

Now, these toy cars do not have an engine.

So if I wanted them to move across the table,

how do you think I could do it?

Push it.

Pull it.

OK, well, let's try that.

It's moving! Beep-beep! Beep-beep!

Hey-hey! So pulling the car made it move as well.

But when I let it go, did it keep moving?

No.

No, it didn't. That's right.

Most rollercoaster cars are only pulled or pushed

at the start, and then let go.

But unlike our toy cars, they keep going all the way to the end.

But how do they do it?

Well, have a look at our hill over here.

Cannie, can I ask you to push the little car

up to the top of the hill and stop there?

That's it.

And stop.

Now, if you let go, what do you think will happen?

It'll roll down.

Well, let's see. Let it go.

Hey-hey!

You were right!

So you helped to push the car up the hill,

but it didn't need any help going down the hill.

And that's because of something called gravity.

Gravity is what makes things fall downwards when they are dropped.

Rollercoaster tracks are built with hills

so that gravity can pull the cars downhill and make them move.

How do rollercoasters go so fast, Nina?

That is a great question.

Well, real rollercoasters go much faster than our little car here,

so I think we need to go to a very special park to find out.

Hm... Where do you think we're going today?

Nina said we were going to a special park.

Oh-oh! I hope it's a play park!

Well, I'd prefer a nice quiet park,

where everyone can sit and relax.

Ah...

I don't think this park will be quiet, Felix!

Look!

So here we are at a very special park,

a theme park!

I think for our next experiment,

we need to go on this rollercoaster

to feel how fast it goes. Are you ready?

-ALL:

-Yeah!

Let's go!

ALL: Woo-hoo!

Look, the car's being pushed up the hill by the machine.

Ooh, I'm not sure about this, Nina.

Ooh-ooh!

SCREAMING

Ooh, it's all uppy and downy!

Fast, woo!

A bit too fast for me.

Oh!

That was brilliant fun, wasn't it?

-ALL:

-Yeah!

Rollercoasters are all about having fun,

so they need to go fast to make them exciting.

Now, did it feel like the rollercoaster cars

were going faster down the big hills or the small hills?

The big hills.

That's right, so to find out why the big hills are faster,

let's do another experiment.

Now, these slopes

are like the downhill part of a rollercoaster.

And the tracks are all the same length.

But, Ben, your slope is steeper than Erin's,

and Cannie, your slope is steeper than both Erin and Ben's,

and I'm going to give you a car each, OK?

Can you pass that along, Cannie?

Lovely, thank you.

There we go. We've all got a car each.

Now I want you to hold your car at the top of the slope.

And when I say go,

I want you to let it go,

and we'll see which car goes the fastest.

OK.

One, two, three, go!

Which car got to the bottom first?

Mine.

That's right, so even though the hills are all the same length,

the car that was on the steepest hill got to the bottom first.

Now do you know why?

Did it go faster?

It did go faster.

So when a slope is steep,

like the ones on the rollercoaster,

it's easier for gravity to pull the cars down to the bottom

really quickly.

So the steeper the slope,

the faster you go,

and going fast on a rollercoaster is what makes it really exciting!

Oh, this is exciting! We've found out that rollercoasters

go really fast!

And the steeper the slope, the faster you go, whee!

But why do the hills have to be so high, Nina?

That's a great question, Felix.

The high hills do something really important.

It's time for a final experiment.

So your question was, "How do rollercoasters work?"

And so far we've found out they go very fast down a steep hill.

But why are the hills on a rollercoaster so high?

Well, let's do an experiment with our

very own cool rollercoaster to find out!

Now, can you remember, how did our car get to the top of the first hill?

It was pushed.

Yes, remember we saw the machine pushing it, Nina?

That's right. Rollercoaster cars have to be

pushed or pulled up the first hill, but

did the machine push us up the other hills?

No, Nina.

No, it didn't. The rollercoaster just kept going.

So let's see if our rollercoaster will keep going.

OK, Erin, do you want to help the

little car get to the top of the hill?

You can give it a push.

That's good. Up to the top, and when you get to the green line,

let go.

No! It's just rolled back down!

It did! Our car didn't keep going.

Hm. Let's have a look at the height of the hills on this rollercoaster

and see if we can work out what went wrong.

The first hill here, is that higher or lower than the second hill?

Higher.

And have a look at our model rollercoaster.

Is the first hill higher or lower than the second hill?

Lower.

It is lower. So what do you think we should do?

Make it higher.

That's a great idea,

and we'll make the second hill lower. Ho-ho!

OK, woo-hoo! Now, the first hill is the highest,

so let's try again. Ben, would you like to have a go?

Let's watch.

OK, that's it. Really good.

Excellent. All the way up to the top.

Wee bit further.

And let go!

ALL: Hurray!

Yay, it worked!

Putting the highest hill first meant

the car kept going over the next hill.

And that's because the car had enough energy to keep going.

So this is the golden rule of rollercoaster-building.

The first hill has to be higher than all the ones after it.

Who would like a go on my super-cool rollercoaster?

ALL: Me!

Ha-ha! I'll get the car.

Go!

Yay!

What an amazing rollercoaster.

So your question was, "How do rollercoasters work?"

And I think we've answered it.

We found out that on most rollercoasters

the cars have to be pushed or pulled up the first hill by a machine.

Then they roll down the slopes on their own,

with the help of a force called gravity.

The cars go really fast because the slopes are steep!

The steeper the slope, the faster it goes.

Whee!

That's why the first hill is the highest.

That's the golden rule of rollercoasters.

So I hope that's answered your question.

-ALL:

-Thanks, Nina. Bye!

You're welcome. Bye!

If you want to know more about the science that's all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

# Super structures

# Super structures

# Super structures, super structures, super structures

# Some of them are tall

# Some of them are wide

# They're bumpy, lumpy, wiggly too Wiggly too

# Some of them are strong

# Some of them are small

# And they're windy, whirly, whooshy too

# All around

# Look over here

# Build it, stack it, pile it up

# Come on, let's get building

-#

-Building building!

# Race it, hold it, make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Come on, let's get building

# Some of them are cosy warm

# Some of them are chilly

-# Keep us safe and hide us too

-Hide us too

# Some of them are just for fun

# Or help us to stay dry

# They're underground and high up too

-#

-Look around

-#

-Over here

# Built it, stack it, pile it up

# Come on, let's get building

-#

-Building building!

# Race it, hold it, make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Come on, let's get building! #

And remember, there are super structures everywhere.

Whether they're big or small, wide or tall,

we can all get building.

See you again soon. Bye!

-ALL:

-Bye!

Get building!