Comparison

I was just looking at the track on the tophat of the Xcelerator and the tophat track on #16.
http://www.twistedrails.com/kbf/images/1123/1123-03.jpg

The track on the Xcelerator's tophat has a bigger radius than the tophat track on #16

http://www.virtualmidway.com/mystery/attraction404.jpg

if this coaster is a taller and faster Xcelerator and the tower is wider...that means the tophat would be wider...and the radius would be BIGGER not smaller.
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- Dennis

Except for the fact that the tower is already as big (or bigger) than Xcelerator.

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- John
"Guest 234: Watching construction of S:TR" - RCT2 (God, I love that game)

This thing's gonna have major airtime.

It won't have any more air-time than coasters you've already been on. For example, did you know that it doesn't matter how tall a certain sky coaster is, your going to get the same amount of "free-fall" time on every model... the only difference is the legenth of the "swing". All coaster elements have to do with ratios. They all run on the same principal that you can only have so many G's, so a relationship can be built between Speed, Radius of curve and G-Forces.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew! Have fun trying to find me!

If the radius of the curve is smaller than there will be more airtime (I'm talking about the amount of G's not the length of time of airtime).

I was thinking about the small radius of the pieces of track mentioned above (http://www.virtualmidway.com/mystery/attraction404.jpg) and I was just wonder what people thought about this idea....

What if the Top of the "tophat" was actually going to be 2 humps instead of one. You know...you'd be lauched up, twist (however many times) then at the time you'd come over a hump only to be thrown back up another hump THEN down and twisting. This could explain the small radius of those curved pieces because it doesn't seem like they could cover the distance from one side of the tower to the other.

My simple illustrations of the top of the tower...

TopHat - /-\

2 Humps - /\/\

Just having fun guessing!

Those two pieces could be hooked together to make a little bigger radius of a tophat, just a thought.

It would still be a REALLY small radius.

Skibum- the tower is too narrow to make 2 bunnyhops on top. There is WAY too much curved track for 2 humps or even the tower... I'm not sure how this is going to be, but there are about 5 - 6 pieces of curved track. 2 0r 3 pieces are have a bigger radius than these 3 pieces here.

One more thing...i noticed the raduis of the catwalks supposibly for the tophat... just look at this picture:

http://www.virtualmidway.com/mystery/attraction403.jpg

the staircase on the left has a really small radius...the ones on the right have a really big radius.

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- Dennis
*** This post was edited by Big D 10/21/2002 10:26:09 PM ***

Big D: I haven't see this stuff in person, so I believe you. I was just having fun. I just get a feeling that this thing may do something unusual at the top that nobody is expecting.

RllrCstrDude187 said:
If the radius of the curve is smaller than there will be more airtime (I'm talking about the amount of G's not the length of time of airtime).

Dude, you don't understand. Smaller radius, slower speed= X amount of G forces. Larger radius, faster speed= X amount of G forces.

And for the record, Airtime is still a G-Force... you feel like you weigh less than normal.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew! Have fun trying to find me!
*** This post was edited by Zero-G 10/21/2002 10:36:53 PM ***

In all the drawings and artist renditions, one thing is similar and I strongly believe that one thing is going to be true...

They all have tall up/downhill sections, and small crests. I think the radius will be quite small, and the majority of the thrill will be traveling 90 degrees UP and DOWN however many hundreds of feet :)

Here's just a thought:

Maybe this isn't even for the tophat. Maybe this will be a smaller hill later in the ride. I'm probably wrong but it's something to think about.

Zero-G said:
Dude, you don't understand. Smaller radius, slower speed= X amount of G forces. Larger radius, faster speed= X amount of G forces.
And for the record, Airtime is still a G-Force... you feel like you weigh less than normal.

Im not sure you know what ur talking about Zero-G. RllCstrDude187 was saying if you go over the smaller rasius at the same speed as the big radius, the g's will be far greater on the smaller radius. Simple stuff, im sure you'll understand...

*** This post was edited by Dragster2003 10/21/2002 11:00:00 PM ***

Ahh, the sweet, silent gratification of knowing something someone else doesn't... and not telling them anything about it.

I'm not going to take any more of my time to "convince" you two how the world works. Figure it out on your own if you want to really want understand how roller coasters maintain normal G-forces.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew! Have fun trying to find me!

wow, ok who knows what im saying and who knows what zero-g is saying, lets see who knows more, read the whole page to get the idea...
*** This post was edited by Dragster2003 10/22/2002 12:13:59 AM ***

Zero-G is refering to the fact that there's a maximum number of G's a person can withstand without ripping his internal anatomy apart. Smaller radius 'can' mean more airtime, but will probably mean slower speed at the apex in this case.
As for the relation between radius, speed and G-force:
F(G)= mv2/r
or
v2=Frm
Let's say m = 1 and F = 20 (Newton, what would indicate a body exposed to 1 negative G on an non-inverting tophat)
I think, from looking at the pics, that the smallest curved part could have a radius of around and about 7 metres (sorry, European guy doin' the math)
This would mean a velocity of 42,5 Km/h or 26,5 mph
And now i'm busy, i might aswell do Xcelerator, what does it have for radius? About 10 metres? ---> 51Km/h or 31mph (but i don't think it pulls -1G)
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Stengel for president!

To convert what Helios said into english :), the smaller the radius, the slower the speed has to be to equal the same forces exerted on a curve with a larger radius and higher speed. And a curve is a curve regardless whether it's done parallel or perpendicular to the ground. The results would be bad if you take a tight curve too fast, such as Magnum's bunny hops with the trims off. On the other hand, the ride would be boring if you took a large curve too slow, like Mean Streak if it's trims are on too tight. Ride designers know this, so that's why intensity of ride is maintained throughout when in reality the trains slow down considerably through the course.

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Scott W. Short, Rail Junkie
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Got stung by a math-bug last night, dunno what came over me!

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Stengel for president!