Kira Rothschild – Year 8

Remi Moses – Year 8

Year 8 Science at Luna Park

Year 8 went on an excursion to Luna Park to learn about energy and forces for Science last week. We were allowed to go on all the rides like The Hair Raiser, The Big Dipper, The Sledgehammer, The Boomerang, and more, to help us understand how all the forces and energies come together to make the rides functional.

During this excursion, we learnt about the different forms of energy that can be found at Luna Park or anywhere else; Potential, Kinetic, Radiant, Sound, Heat, Magnetic, Electrical, Chemical, Elastic, and Gravitational energy. We also got to learn about forces like friction and how weight is different to mass. 

We were able to witness and experience all these examples in all of the rides, like how on the hair raiser, a ride where you go up 50 m from sea level and then are suddenly dropped towards the ground, you gain potential energy as you travel upwards and when you drop; air resistance, kinetic energy and the feeling of weightlessness. As we went on the rides we were able to enjoy ourselves while understanding how and why the rides function.

We are very grateful to the teachers for our trip to Luna Park and that we were able to learn about energy and forces in such a fun way.