Introduction:
You wait in line for what seems like forever and finally you take your seat. You pull the paddle bars so they fit snug against your shoulders. You reach the top and then comes the big drop. You start screaming or if you're daring you put your hands up and enjoy the ride. I'm of course speaking of roller coasters. Today I'm going to go over the history, the different types of roller coasters, the mechanics, and the most important part, safety of roller coasters.
History
The oldest roller coaster is believed to have originated from the so-called "Russian Mountains", which were specially constructed hills of ice, located around Saint Petersburg. Built in the 15th century, the slides were built to a height between 70 and 80
…show more content…
Perhaps the best known historical roller coaster, The Cyclone, was opened at Coney Island in 1927. The Great Depression marked the end of the first golden age of roller coasters, and amusement parks in general went into deterioration.
In 1959 the Disneyland theme park introduced a new design breakthrough with the Matterhorn Bobsleds. This was the first roller coaster to use a tubular steel track. Unlike conventional rails set on wooden railroad ties, tubular steel can be bent in any direction, which allows designers to incorporate loops, corkscrews, and many other maneuvers into their designs. Most modern roller coasters are made of steel, although wooden coasters are still being built. New designs and technologies are pushing the limits of what can be experienced on the newest coasters.
Mechanics:
The cars on a typical roller coaster are not self-powered. A standard full circuit coaster is pulled up with a chain or cable along the lift hill to the first peak of the coaster track. The potential energy accumulated by the rise in height is transferred to kinetic energy as the cars race down the first downward slope. Kinetic energy is then converted back into potential energy as the train moves up again to the second peak. This hill is necessarily lower, as some mechanical energy is lost to friction. Not all rides feature a lift hill, however. The train may be set into motion by
The first real roller coaster was built in 1878 on Coney Island which was built by La Marcus Thompson. The roller coaster was made out of wood and went down hill. To get to this roller coaster you
A roller coaster ride is a thrilling awesome experience which involves many energies in the roller coaster itself. The ride/roller coaster often begins as a chain and motor and once it's on the top gravity takes over. At the
There are two major types of roller coasters, which are defined by what their tracks are made out
There were faster, taller, and safer, roller coasters then ever before before. The industry was so successful that from 1974 to 1980 more roller coasters were being built each year than all the previous years combined since 1920. After Allen retired there was room for a rising star to shine. This star was Ron Toomer. He got a degree in mechanical engineering. He then designed the heat shield on Apollo 11 the first spaceship to land on the moon .All over she was done with NASA and got a job Arrow Dynamic Inc. His first big roller coaster was The Runaway Mine Train in Six Flags Over Texas, today this roller coaster is a national landmark. About 9 years after Runaway Mine Train, Toomor design Corkscrew the first modern coaster to go upside down. About nine years after that you built the Big Bad Wolf second suspended coaster in the world. He also built Magnum XL-200 First roller coaster ever two break 200 feet tall, This is now known as a hyper coaster. Ron Toomor was the king of roller coasters. He was such an influence in roller coasters that he is made the list of Britannica's top 100 influential inventors, Along with Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, and Steve Jobs. All this you must be thinking wow this guy must love riding roller coasters, however this is not the case, “I’ve had a bad motion sickness problem since I was a little kid,” he said. “But I’ve ridden enough of them to know what happens and how it feels.” Now roller coasters is a big competition to build the tallest, fastest, longest. Here are the current records: The fastest roller coaster is Formula Rossa at 149.1 Miles per hour. Kingda Ka has two records for the Tallest at 456 ft and the biggest drop at 418 ft. Steel dragon 2000 is the longest with 8133.2
In 1989, it set the record with, Magnum XL-200, “the world’s first hypercoaster to top out at 200 feet; in 2000 it shattered records again with the 310-foot giga-coaster, Millennium Force, and was the first to surpass 400 feet with its strata-coaster, Top Thrill Dragster, in 2003” which reaches a “face-melting” speed of 120 miles per hour (Levine, 2). With Cedar Point’s impressive collection, it is now often referred to as, “The Rollercoaster Capital of the World”. Each rollercoaster showcased something that had never been seen before which encouraged guests to keep coming back for
It was known LaMarcus Thompson’s Switchback Gravity Railway and was built in 1884. This famed rollercoaster soon inspired many other rides to be built. Rollercoasters and rides were not Coney Island only attractions. Many restaurants and food stands were built to accommodate the theme park’s customers. Many sideshows, including freak shows, and concert halls were also constructed.
All roller coasters depend on many different kinds of energies to go through the track to its finish. The highest roller coaster is approximately two hundred and one feet tall. This roller coaster is also known as the Magnum, which has a peak speed of seventy miles per hour. It was designed by Ron Toomer, who was born in Pasadena, California on May 31, 1930. Toomer made many rides that revolutionized roller coasters worldwide. Even though he was prone to motion sickness as a child, he was able to make ninety-three roller coasters throughout his lifetime until his death in 2011. The Big Bad Wolf was one of his most original rides.
The first roller coasters were patented by LaMarcus Adna Thompson in 1885 (Wikipedia), but roller coasters existed long before their paten. Back in late sixteenth century Russia there was a sport known as ice sliding where one would start at the top of a 70-foot wooden structure and pummel down a 600 feet long track on one’s 2-foot-long sleigh (Throgmorton 10). Ice sliding was only available during the winter months, so in the warmer months the Russians would affix wheels to their sleighs so they could enjoy sliding year round. Then in the late eighteenth century a French traveler built a conveyer-like coaster by placing rollers on a wooden track so that riders could coast down the track, thus came the name Roller Coaster (Throgmorton 10).
New roller coasters were added, new records were broken, this amusement park got better each year. In the 70’s Cedar Point started to break roller coaster records. In fact, Cedar Point has had a number of world records. Whether it has to do with height, speed, or even the steepness, Cedar Point continues to break records still to this day. Since this amusement park is known for it’s roller coasters, it’s known as the roller coaster capital of the world! It has had more roller coasters throughout the years than any other amusement park. Not only does Cedar Point break roller coaster records, it has won many awards such as “Best Amusement Park” (Cedar Point
The roller coaster has its beginnings in Russia where during the 1600's. People crafted sleds out of wood and built hills made of ice blocks. The hills had sand at the bottom to help slow down the sleds so they would not crash when they reached the bottom of the hill.1 Over time, the roller coaster has become more complex. They now are taller, faster
“The history of roller coasters is as important as any other step because the architects learn from others mistakes and what they did right. The beginning of roller coasters started in Russia in the 1400’s when people would make hills with the snow and send there sleds down the hills. They would build would towers to get to the top of the hill. In the 1700’s they put wheels on the bottom of the sleds and would be able to go down artificial hills during the summer, they would also use different colored lanterns so they could ride at night. The first roller coaster opened in 1804 in France. The roller coasters didn’t last long Do to the increase of speed and there not being enough safety, accidents were very common. The roller coasters caught back on whenever Lamarcus Thompson built the Gravity Switchback Railway ride at Coney Island. Development was at its highest in the 1920’s there were over 1500 roller coasters in
Here is how it works, you will wait at the top of the coffee cup which is the station and step in the ride, as soon as each person loads on the roller coaster and are ready, you will elevate up the first hill. So you may embark on the journey with who you drink your coffee with in the morning. First the coffee bean cart will rise about 450 feet in the air and then the roller coaster accelerates down at a constant speed of 102 miles per hour. This roller coaster is 7,442 feet long or 189.03 meters in length. On the first hill you stop at the top of the hill, causing a tremendous about of potential energy, you just dangle to the top of the hill peer down below you. This is one of the main thrill factors of this ride. After hanging there so what seems to be a hour, you will drop down with a gargantuan amount of kinetic energy, this is also where you hit your terminal velocity. While hitting your terminal velocity you will also be weightless and free falling while rapidly rushing down the hill. This is an example of Newton's 3rd law, an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an unbalance
The roller coaster has to be a certain height for it
When engineers build the roller coasters, their main purpose is to make these roller coasters full for joy, fear, thrill and adrenaline where people can visit and gain enjoyable experience. Although these roller coasters are supposed to be a source of fun, there are some negative aspects of it that reflect negatively on both the environment and the society. The first negative effect on the environment is air pollution. Obviously, running this tall, powerful roller coaster takes a lot of energy. This massive amount of energy comes from burning fossil fuels in order to provide energy to power the roller coaster. In addition, building a very long roller coaster requires a huge space. As a result, roller coasters are build in rural areas. Because
A roller coaster is basically made up of potential and kinetic energy. Once you start moving that's when you're pulled by a motor and that's the only time you have a motor . You're not being pulled by a hitch all the time. Once you're moving you're on your own.