CP on THE LEARNING CHANNEL tonight
loriu said:
They said it takes you up 312 feet and drops you to 12 feet = 300 feet and it is the steepest (until next years PKD addition
You're wrong here, actually. The steepest drop I believe is on "Oblivion" at Alton Towers, in the UK, which is 89 or 90 degrees.. MF never held the steepest drop record.
They said it takes you up 312 feet and drops you to 12 feet = 300 feet and it is the steepest (until next years PKD addition
You're wrong here, actually. The steepest drop I believe is on "Oblivion" at Alton Towers, in the UK, which is 89 or 90 degrees.. MF never held the steepest drop record.
Actually Ultra Twister at Six Flags Astroworld has the steepness record at a full 90 degrees. Oblivion is a hair under 90 degrees.
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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
About what Jeff said about us being the last country in the world to not use the metric system. I hope we don't switch over for Magnum's and MF's sake. Maggie was the first to break the 200 ft mark-200 ft is not 200 meters, so it has not significance in the metric system besides just being a tall ride. Same for MF.
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Trim brakes-a necessity???
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Trim brakes-a necessity???
Straying seriously off-topic here, but hey, Jeff started it...
The engine in my car was built in Canada, and the car was assembled in the USA. Everything under the hood is NOT metric; in fact, changing the alternator requires a 9/16" wrench to loosen the part and a 10mm wrench to loosen the belt...both bolts running through the same chunk of steel. The United States continues to use its non-metric measurement system because there is no compelling reason to make wholesale change, and many compelling reasons NOT to. The result is that we have a mixed system here. Where it is appropriate or necessary to do so, Metric measurements are used (usually when international trade is involved) and otherwise US measurements are used. Agencies which have attempted to do wholesale conversion have found that it is simply not practical and too expensive. For instance, for a while, the Ohio Department of Transportation speced all bridge projects in Metric. That lasted about two years before they switched back.
In this country, the entire infrastructure is built in feet, inches, ounces, and pounds...thermometers, scales, gas pumps, lumber, and more. If there were a compelling reason to junk everything and start over with new numbers, it would happen. But for the moment, the compelling reason does not exist. Certainly, more and more bits of our country will slowly convert over, but it is going to take a very long time.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who notes that while his last video camera used 8mm tape, the one he just bought uses 1/4" tape...
The engine in my car was built in Canada, and the car was assembled in the USA. Everything under the hood is NOT metric; in fact, changing the alternator requires a 9/16" wrench to loosen the part and a 10mm wrench to loosen the belt...both bolts running through the same chunk of steel. The United States continues to use its non-metric measurement system because there is no compelling reason to make wholesale change, and many compelling reasons NOT to. The result is that we have a mixed system here. Where it is appropriate or necessary to do so, Metric measurements are used (usually when international trade is involved) and otherwise US measurements are used. Agencies which have attempted to do wholesale conversion have found that it is simply not practical and too expensive. For instance, for a while, the Ohio Department of Transportation speced all bridge projects in Metric. That lasted about two years before they switched back.
In this country, the entire infrastructure is built in feet, inches, ounces, and pounds...thermometers, scales, gas pumps, lumber, and more. If there were a compelling reason to junk everything and start over with new numbers, it would happen. But for the moment, the compelling reason does not exist. Certainly, more and more bits of our country will slowly convert over, but it is going to take a very long time.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who notes that while his last video camera used 8mm tape, the one he just bought uses 1/4" tape...
You don't happen to have a Ford, do you Dave? I had an Escort that had some strange combinations in strange places, and even worse, some things that couldn't be moved without a special Ford tool. My Toyota appears to be metric everywhere, at least what I've seen.
The compelling reason to go metric is that the rest of the known universe is metric, including our own scientific industries and their educational counterparts. You won't find a high school chemistry class in the US that doesn't use the metric system. And look at Canada... they drive the same cars and consume all of the same goods as we do, and they're getting along fine.
Heck, we're half way there, and we don't even realize it. Non metric parts in cars are becoming rare, and it doesn't make sense to mix the systems. Most food packaging indicates both systems (irritating because we use ounces to describe volume and weight). Our medicines are dosed in milligrams. Gas pumps are mostly electronic, and already configured to pump litres.
The worst part is that the average American has no idea how many ounces are in a pound, cups in a gallon or feet in a mile. Most do know how many centimetres are in a metre.
Frankly, I think CP_bound's post is right on!
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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
Millennium Force laps: 45
*** This post was edited by Jeff on 10/1/2000. ***
The compelling reason to go metric is that the rest of the known universe is metric, including our own scientific industries and their educational counterparts. You won't find a high school chemistry class in the US that doesn't use the metric system. And look at Canada... they drive the same cars and consume all of the same goods as we do, and they're getting along fine.
Heck, we're half way there, and we don't even realize it. Non metric parts in cars are becoming rare, and it doesn't make sense to mix the systems. Most food packaging indicates both systems (irritating because we use ounces to describe volume and weight). Our medicines are dosed in milligrams. Gas pumps are mostly electronic, and already configured to pump litres.
The worst part is that the average American has no idea how many ounces are in a pound, cups in a gallon or feet in a mile. Most do know how many centimetres are in a metre.
Frankly, I think CP_bound's post is right on!
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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
Millennium Force laps: 45
*** This post was edited by Jeff on 10/1/2000. ***
In reference to there being no reason to mix the systems, I semi-disagree for one reason.
If you mean by mixing the systems in having 12" in one place under your hood, for example, and 4 centimeters in another, that'd cause confusion. (I know 12" isn't 4 centimeters, but this is just theoretical.)
However, using both systems in all places does have it's advantages. Something like this:
X feet
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X meters
on labels would be a good thing, in my opinion, and you're starting to see it now. Eventually, people will start to make the connections and figure out what standard equals what metric. That will ease the pain of converting.
That's all I have to say about that. Back to talking about roller coasters.
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How dare you vanquish the Steel Phantom without his consent? Fear the Phantom's Revenge.
If you mean by mixing the systems in having 12" in one place under your hood, for example, and 4 centimeters in another, that'd cause confusion. (I know 12" isn't 4 centimeters, but this is just theoretical.)
However, using both systems in all places does have it's advantages. Something like this:
X feet
------
X meters
on labels would be a good thing, in my opinion, and you're starting to see it now. Eventually, people will start to make the connections and figure out what standard equals what metric. That will ease the pain of converting.
That's all I have to say about that. Back to talking about roller coasters.
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How dare you vanquish the Steel Phantom without his consent? Fear the Phantom's Revenge.
Jeff, I didn't mean it that way. I just mean that MF and Maggie wouldn't have that vital essence that make them more than just a hyper or giga coaster. I do agree, though, the metric system does make a lot more sense. It's just SO much easier to use. Conversions usually only involve moving the decimal place-everything's a factor of 10. Overall, I think it would be better to switch to metric and not worry about MF and Maggie. Even if we do adopt the metric system, CP can always refer back to the "obsolete system" measurements. No big deal-I didn't mean it that seriously that the only obstacle for us adopting a good system of measurement should be roller coasters.
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Trim brakes-a necessity???
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Trim brakes-a necessity???
let's see...a pint is a pound the world around(16 ounces by weight AND volume), 16 cups in a gallon(128 oz) and 32 oz in a quart...they taught us how to convert all this to metric in Chef school but i'll be darned if i can remember how to do it!! as long as it doesn't change the way things are done in the kitchen, i could care less about whether we go metric or not..
this has been servo's editorial for the day...we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...:)
when are the new shows gonna be on Discovery Channel?? we don't get TLC out here in rural Illinois, but we DO get Discovery...
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--servo, For whom the off-season has already started...
this has been servo's editorial for the day...we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...:)
when are the new shows gonna be on Discovery Channel?? we don't get TLC out here in rural Illinois, but we DO get Discovery...
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--servo, For whom the off-season has already started...
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