How to Make a Foil Roller Coaster

The foil "roller coaster" belongs to that category of rainy-day activities for those without cable television and X-box. The roller coaster "car" is a marble or any other small object that rolls. Foil is great for making roller coaster tracks because it is so malleable and easy to work with. Try setting up your own customized foil roller coaster as a science project or just to pass the time.

Things You'll Need

• Aluminum foil
• Marble
• Tape or something to fasten track sections together

Instructions

1. Tear off your individual foil pieces, one for each slope. If you have a particular design in mind, mark off lengths before cutting or tearing the foil from the roll.

2. Take each of your slopes and create edges or "guardrails" to keep your roller coaster car on its track. Take either side of the foil section and fold it several times in toward the middle, then bend the sides up. Try to fold evenly on each side, so that your result is a groove about the size of your car object and two vertical sides.

3. Set up your slopes. You'll want to either attach a slope to two objects to hold it in place, or rest it on top of other objects like chairs or bannisters. Your roller coaster design depends on the pitches and shapes of your various slopes. If your slope is strong enough, you should be able to tap it into place at its ends. If not, you'll need additional supports.

4. Attach your various slopes to get a full track. Tape ends of slopes together as seamlessly as possible. Make sure there is nothing that the roller coaster car will get stuck on between your various slopes and sections.

5. Do a trial run. Set your car at the top and let it run. Observe any problems and fix them: you'll probably have to do several runs to determine if the foil slopes hold the weight of the car, and whether the car gets hung up on edges. A little trial and error is part of the process. After a few trial runs, your foil roller coaster should be working quite well.