A Trip to Cedar Point

By Maddie Meyerhofer

For the majority of Early College students, Monday May 16th was spent at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Not only was this day dedicated to the thrilling rollercoasters, but physics and math were also incorporated. Mr. Pratt and Doc B, the teachers in charge of the trip, created worksheets focused on the mechanics behind the rides. As it was stated by Mr. Pratt, the worksheets were designed to “show how physics and math are involved.”

Physics is the study of the motion of an object. When a roller coaster car makes its initial ascent, it is creating potential energy. Potential energy is created as the coaster car goes higher in the air and is then pulled down by gravity. When we reach the top of the coaster, kinetic energy is created as we begin to make our descent down the slope. As we go up potential energy is created, and going down creates kinetic energy. Going upside down on a loop creates a balance of both potential and kinetic energy. Math was also incorporated into the trip, students had to display their knowledge of inequalities, equations, and geometry.

Students were not only educated on the process put into roller coasters, but they also had fun on them. The bus arrived around 10:15 in the morning and stayed until 8:30 at night. At least 10 hours and 15 minutes were spent at the amusement park. Many of the classic roller coasters were ridden by a majority of the students, some of them including the Raptor, Maverick, Gatekeeper and many more. Cedar Point even came out with a new ride known as the Valravn, it is the world’s longest, fastest, and tallest dive coaster! The lines were extremely long due to the popularity, but luckily a few of JPEC’s own got to ride it, including Mr. Pratt!

In general, this trip was extremely fun and well executed. Not only was learning incorporated, but there was a lot fun included too. The organization of the trip was wonderful, the teachers did a stupendous job. I believe it would be a wonderful idea to have it again. Hopefully there will be another trip planned in the near future.