Track Chalenges With A Purpose

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Basic to all DIY Marble Track projects is the art of building a marble track that is perfectly straight, rails level with each other and running parallel. 

To master this technique, construct a straight-away track on spacers attached to dowel rods. Test the track with a marble by slightly elevating one end of the track. 

The marble must successfully

 complete the run 3 times.

By raising one end of a Straight-away track (Challenge #!) the invisible forces of gravity become visible.   

Beginning at the starting point of the track, attach one of the track rails to the spacers on the dowel rods. 

Then attach the second rail matching the profile of the first rail. The higher the starting point and the steeper the incline the greater the acceleration and the more momentum the track creates. 

 By assembling two spacers back-to-back and attached them to dowel rod you have created a dual race track.

If you have enough track rails, attach a second dual track slanted in the opposite direction, so you have race tracks starting at both ends of the track.

Discover how the definitions of Speed, Acceleration and Momentum are actually different terms.

On a curve the marble experiences Centripetal Force from the outside rail, which keep it from flying off the track.

Each Spring Mr. Rich teaches approximately 125 Lousiburg,  KS 5th graders on Earth Day and 190 Shawnee Mission School's 4th graders on a field trip to the Shawnee Indian Mission how to "knuckle down" and play the age-old game of Ringer..

Pictured here are four-tracks-in-one; a Straight-away, a Spiral, a Marble Jump and a Figure-8.