How to Build a Backyard Roller Coaster

You may never be able to turn your backyard into the next Six Flags amusement park. But if you know enough about construction and physics and have enough time on your hands, you can build a small roller coaster in your yard.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Make sure your backyard has plenty of room for a roller coaster. You'll most likely need to be in a rural area with plenty of open space behind your house. Even a coaster built on a small scale will take up a lot of room.

2. Design how the car will be. You can use anything from a kid's toy driving car to just a flat board. But you need to make sure the car will stay on the track and the rider won't fall off.

3. Take into account the height of each hill. However many you have, one can't be higher than the previous hill on the track, because the car won't have enough energy to make it up the next hill.

4. Figure out how the car will get up the first hill at the start. Without electric power, you're looking at getting it up manually. Find out if you should pull it with the rider already in or start it at the top where riders get in.

5. Get the appropriate materials and build the track. You'll likely be using a combination of pipe and lumber. Make sure your materials are sturdy and reliable.

6. Construct the car so it is secure to the track. It will help to put two sets of wheels on the car--one set that will roll on top of the track and another that will ride along the outside.

Tips & Warnings

• Designing a roller coaster, no matter what size, involves physics and laws of motion. In order for your car to make it completely around the track, it must continuously build enough energy to make it up each hill and around every corner.