Funderstanding Roller Coaster

From LoveToKnow Themeparks

The Funderstanding roller coaster can be a fun roller coaster game for ride enthusiasts or a great educational tool for science teachers. No matter how you use this simple online game, however, it is sure to deliver thrills.

Funderstanding is understanding!

About Funderstanding

The Funderstanding company provides instructional design services and technology to promote a love of learning in fun, interactive ways. The company’s philosophy encourages a learning-by-doing strategy where students can learn from their failures in order to make adjustments toward success in active ways. One of their most popular programs, a simple roller coaster java applet, illustrates that philosophy perfectly.

The Funderstanding Roller Coaster

It takes years to design and build a roller coaster that will run smoothly and safely, but students and coaster fans alike can build a simple coaster online in seconds with Funderstanding’s coaster program. This program is free to use and simulates a real coaster design in a simplistic but accurate way. When designing the coaster, users can adjust a number of initial factors, including:

  • Initial hill height
  • Second hill height
  • Vertical loop diameter
  • Initial coaster speed
  • Coaster mass
  • Strength of gravity acting on the coaster
  • Strength of friction on the coaster track

By adjusting these simple but critical factors, the resulting small red coaster car may make it safely through the track layout or it could roll back and fail to complete the track or even fly off the track if the design is not feasible.

Using the Coaster

The Funderstanding roller coaster applet features slide buttons to adjust the different factors affecting the coaster’s performance, as well as both positive and negative measurements of time and speed so the effects of adjustments can be easily compared. While detailed statistics are not provided and the slide buttons are not marked with precise measurements, the coaster can give users a fairly accurate representation of what will happen to their roller coaster design if they increase or decrease different factors.

As a Lesson

Many teachers use the Funderstanding coaster as a practical lesson in physics or engineering, and students can use the resulting measurements for mathematical analysis. The simple design of the coaster is easy for even young students to understand, while more advanced students can draw their own scientific conclusions from experimenting with the different adjustments as they run the ride.

As a Game

Many people who enjoy playing roller coaster games can add the Funderstanding ride to their list of quick, fun games. While it can be easy to create a working roller coaster with this simplistic model, enthusiasts can create other goals for more challenging games, such as:

How will you play?
  • Fastest time to complete the track
  • Slowest coaster to complete the track
  • Largest coaster loop
  • Safest coaster ride
  • Most dangerous coaster ride
  • Aiming for a specific maximum speed or total time

Technical Requirements

An internet connection is required to use the Funderstanding coaster simulation, but can be disconnected once the java applet has loaded successfully. A high-speed connection is not necessary but will make the simulation smoother, particularly for a classroom. The user’s preferred internet browser must be java-enabled, and updated browser versions are recommended. There is no cost or registration required to use the coaster and it is suitable for all ages.


The Funderstanding roller coaster is a simple line drawing that simulates roller coaster design and engineering in a big way. By allowing users to manipulate different factors that affect how a coaster performs, any would-be engineer can begin to understand how complex and challenging it can be to build a roller coaster. At the same time, however, it’s still a fun and entertaining way to enjoy these high speed thrill rides.



 


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