Okay, So I figured out how Newton's first and third law apply to a rollercoaster but I am still having trouble figuring out what the second one means and how it applies to a rollercoaster. Ughhh I am so confused.

Question

amistre64 · Answer

Force is equal to mass times acceleration ... if you know any 2 items, you can calculate the 3rd.

amistre64 · Answer

You prolly dont want any deadly forces being transfered to the riders ... for starters

anonymous · Answer

The second law quantifies FORCE.. you can measure FORCE .. the question is how
the second law says , and I always like to remember it this way
$$\sum_{}^{}  F = ma$$

Lets take a couple of examples

Imagine you have a block on a frictionless plane and acted upon by two forces as show in the figure. |dw:1377533932482:dw|

Now the question is what happens to the block? We use the second law
First we find what is the NET force , thats what the summation stands for. since one guy puts 5 newton rightward, and the other 2N leftward, the net force is 3 N towards the right.

now mass is 10 kg... Plug into the equation, and you end up with a = 0.3 m/s^2. And this acceleartion should also be rightward. 
this is how we apply newton's law, by using the forces, we can calculate the amount of acceleration that comes on the block.

Now if is said these guys kept putting this force for like say 5 seconds, what is new speed of the block at the end of 5 seconds. 
well.. 

v = u + at => 0 + 0.3 *5 = 1.5 m/s
Now if they both stop putting forces what happens?
Inertia makes sure, the block continues to move with 1.5m/s..