300 ft

Ok all of you physics experts out there...here's a question:

Theoretically, say the gods at CP decided to put another hill on Top Thrill Dragster right after the first one...Would it be possible for the hill to be 300 ft tall? Since the first hill is over 100 ft taller than the second hill would be, my first reaction was that it actually was possible, but I didn't do any calculations.

Well, I would assume that it would be able to. If it is still going roughly 120 at the bottom of the tophat. But, I would also assume that the angle of the incline would be a factor as well. If you had 2 similar top hats and the train is going the same speed when it reached the top hat, I would think that it could make it up both, going the same speed at the crest, so in that case, the train could probally make it up another top hat around 400 feet.

But then again, what do I know. ;)

What if the train got stuck in between the two hills??? Perhaps it rolled back from the second hill due to an odd wind gust or other forces. The train would have to be taken off the tracks to move it.

That's happened with other coasters. Plenty of them.

None of us knows the velocity of the train at the bottom of the top hat. CP will say it is 120 m.p.h. for marketing, but realistically it is probably around 110-115 m.p.h. or less. I'd say that 300' would be about the absolute maximum height of a potential second hill. None of us can do the calculations because we simply don't know enough about the design of the trains to accurately determine how tall a second hill could be. Either way, a second hill would probably take up as much room as the entire brake run, so it isn't going to happen. I think it would have been really neat to have built an enormous vertical loop after the top hat, but that also would have taken up too much room, cost too much for just a slightly longer ride, and lowered capacity slightly. Dragster is awesome the way it is.

Topthrill420- You stole my line!!

CPcyclone- According to RCT2, it would be totally possible. Smart? Not really. Imagine how often the train would valley in between the two hills. For example, check out Millennium Force. The first drop is 310 feet high with a 300 foot vertical drop (vertical as in change in elevation, not straight up and down). The first overbank turn and the second hill are both under 200 feet... Could it have been done to have the first coaster with 2 hills over 200 feet? Sure. But again, it would probably CRAWL over that second hill.

MagnumAllan- How about if they had twisted the drop 270 degrees the opposite direction so you continued away from the station towards Gemini? Throw in that second hill up over Gemini (ala Goliath over Collossus @ SFMM), or maybe the granddaddy of all Immelman loops to send the train back the other way, and you're good to go. Just a thought...

Anyway, if you want TTD with more elements to it, you can always go ride Xcellerator(overbank turns) or Storm Runner(inversions).

Shane there is no coaster on RCT2 that is the same type as TTD. Cyclone it matters on a lot of things {how hot and cold track is, how long the cars are, also how many tons the car is}. But I don't think CP is going to put a 2nd hill on TTD anyway.

If it's on a video game then it must be true! ; )

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Topthrill420 said:
Well, I would assume that it would be able to. If it is still going roughly 120 at the bottom of the tophat. But, I would also assume that the angle of the incline would be a factor as well. If you had 2 similar top hats and the train is going the same speed when it reached the top hat, I would think that it could make it up both, going the same speed at the crest, so in that case, the train could probally make it up another top hat around 400 feet.

But then again, what do I know. ;)

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In theory with no loss of energy to friction you would be correct. Unfortunately, there would be no way to eliminate all friction of the ride. I would agree with whoever said that at the bottom you are at about 110-115 is probably right, after the loss of speed to wind&wheel friction.

As for the height of the second hill, the steepness won't matter. It will take the same amount of energy to get to a height whether you go straight up or take a 10 degree incline, it'll just take longer on the 10 degree incline to reach that height.

John
DEETROIT BAS-KET-BALL

MF first three hills have the following stats: First Hill 310, Second Hill 169, and Third Hill 182. (According to the CP website) Maybe that will give you a general idea about how high second and third hills should be.

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Coaster Freak said:
MF first three hills have the following stats: First Hill 310, Second Hill 169, and Third Hill 182.

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If anyone knows the speed of the train at the crest of the hills, we could make some semi-accurate estimations.

However, I think I have figured out an estimated answer to the question. If it is true that TTD goes 110-115mph on the descent of the tophat, then using MF and TTD as examples you know that it takes about 83mph(minus 10 mph for the estimated difference of speed going over both hills) to make it up a 310ft hill and around 120 to make it up a 420ft hill, you can take the difference and know that 1mph and get you an extra 2.97ft. So at 115mph you can get up an estimated 341.55ft hill, making my first post wrong.

If anyone sees that I did something wrong with my calculations please correct me.

Coaster Freak, I think CP has their stats confused. The second hill is 182 and the third would be 169. I would think the third hill is the smallest. Could be just a misprint. Anyway, I think it is possible for a second hill that is near 300 ft.

No that is right i believe. The third hill is taller than the second, weird i know, but i guess the overbanked turn helps it to maintian spped.

The second hill is 169. You go fast through that second hill, and on the third hill they aren't concentrating on speed they're concentrating on airtime.

The second "hill" is the overbanked turn.

Well it goes up and down so I considered it a hill.

The overbanded turn is still a hill. Its is the 2nd hill of that ride if it's a turn or not.

We all know that the overbanked turn is the second hill, no need to continuously say that. It is just smaller than the third hill.

In the original MF promo movie the first hill to the island is referred to as "second hill" IIRC.

Edit: Oops, my bad. Apparently I don't recall correctly. It's "thrid hill, 189 feet."

*** Edited 6/18/2004 4:52:18 AM UTC by Michael Darling***

I was just a little confused about that. I thought they were referring to the hills that went over to Millennium Island and back.