G-Forces

The article in the Toledo Blade really brought up some good points on the limits for thrill rides. They even stressed that MF will not be a ride for seniors or small children. Four times the force of gravity would be the most felt on this ride according to Hildebrandt(sp), which is more than experienced on a space shuttle launch! So just what IS the limit for how fast or tall or long a coaster can be? Or, is there a limit? Will we be able to adapt to this and other monster rides that are sure to come?

I think without a g-suit you pass out at anything greater than 5G's. I'm not 100% sure but I used to know it and I think thats correct. So obviously they can't have rides with more than 5G's.

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"Who needs drugs when you have Cedar Point."

That is unless they passed out G suits to riders on the loading platform.....:) Oh I wish they'd quit whining. "Blah, blah , blah. Four Gs is too much! Astronauts don't get 4 Gs...blah blah" Whatever, Power Tower is supposed to nail you with 4Gs but how many people do you see getting off that complaining about the G forces. I can't believe they're actually trying to enforce national thrill ride regulations! This is poposterous(sp)! (I've always wanted to say that)

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RockDown's Favs
1. Raptor
2. Mean Streak
3. Magnum XL-200 *** This post was edited by RockDown2G on 3/26/2000. ***

At 12G's you black out.

At 12G's you are dead. You black-out much sooner than that... it is somewhere areound 5-8.

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"Your obssesed w/ that place aren't you?" (as stated by my best-friends about CP)

When drivers in Indy cars crash into a concrete wall the can experence 50g's for a 1/100 of a second (I herd that form ether Discovey or TLC). That about 5000lbs on a avg human. Most drivers are knocked out, bu some are up.

The space shuttle endures those g forces much longer than a coaster does. High g forces on a coaster only last for fractions of a second. That and 10g's can kill.

At 6 G people start to black out.

No... that's about 9000lbs. =) [180lb ave for a male race car driver]
Instantaneous Gs can be taken at around 1000Gs for an instant. Sustained, pilots and professional athletes can remain conscious for up to 15 seconds at 9Gs without blacking, although it's painful. The normal person can take ~5-6Gs without blacking for a second or two. 8Gs without a suit or the like for an extended time will be fatal. Sustained negative Gs above 2Gs will kill too [aneurysm].

The current record for a coaster is 6.5Gs for Taz's Texas Tornado and the next highest in the US is 5.2, I believe. Mindbender [Edmonton], I believe, claims 5.5. [In short, Schwartzkopf loopers] 4Gs is around the average for B&Ms and hypers. Max laterals you'll see are in the neighborhood of 2Gs.

The highest sustained I know of are Goliath's helix, which, if reports are correct, sustains 4 Gs for around 5 seconds. I've hard this borders on painful and has caused momentary blackouts among the *enthusiasts*.

I've read the same thing. There is a great article on Thrill Ride about Goliath that talks about the last helix being painful if you don't keep your hands up.

If humans keep gaining more strength over time to endure high g-forces for longer periods of time, then eventually they would be able to push the envelope on roller coasters' g's.

i thought it was 8 g's before you pass out well that is what i saw on the discovery channle i watch it all the time

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let me off here!!!! :) hey i finnally learned how to do it

Dave care to comment?

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"Magnum is very good value!" -- A RCT Guest on Magnum

How do the suits work to fight against the G forces?

It's an inflatable suit that pushes against your legs and keeps blood higher in the body, so enough will reach the brain to continue consciousness.

as far as the Schwarzkopf loopers go, i remember how Tidal Wave at SFGAm only had lap bars in it and we always wondered about that...must need some serious g's to pull that off. and my brother-in-law, who is a paramedic, says you pass out at 5 or 6 g's, not 8. 8 and you sustain injury. 12 and you're dead. just relaying what i heard

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"I think I scrambled my brain!!"

Here is some usefull information:
***Cedar Point's Coasters WILL NEVER exceed 4 g's UNLESS new technology comes about.
***Astronauts experience about 3 g's at liftoff
***You, for a split second, exceed the 4 g mark when you flop down on your couch! (NOT A JOKE!)

Just thought that might clear things up!

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Jeff Walker
The ARC Homepage
ARC Web Designs
http://cedarpoint.cjb.net

I see Jeff was paying attention at COSI.

Now, I don't know for certain, but I have a feeling that the +4G limit isn't quite the brick-wall limit that was implied. In fact, my suspicion is that rather than a limit on the absolute maximum G-force, CP is more likely (if they are smart, anyway) to look at a G-second rate (4G for one second or 8G for 0.5 second) and a limit on the jerk rate (oops...can't get to 8G w/o violating the jerk rate standard). Only a guess, of course.

The engineers I have talked to (admittedly not many...) are generally opposed to setting a brick-wall limit on G-forces because it is so important to consider G forces in context of the whole ride...the duration of the applied force, for instance. Most of the standards that exist are based on extended exposure, which is not, for the most part, what you get on roller coasters.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
*** This post was edited by RideMan on 3/27/2000. ***

Just a note, Bill said that Taz's Texas Tornado in Houston pulls the highest at 6.5g and that the next highest in the US is 5.2. Well, even though they don't list it in that government chart, Shock Wave at my home park Six Flags Over Texas, a double looping Schwarzkopf design, pulls 5.9 going into the loops. When I was younger that used to affect me with gray outs, but it's all good now. :)

Jason

It's not an official, or at least, officially cited rating, then. it doesn't surprise me, though. A good chunk of the top list is last-minute mods - Rattler - or Schwartzkopf designs.

I guess the real question is will we ever evolve to be able to withstand more Gs for longer periods of time.