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Dragster "Top Thrills": 0
World's first strata-coaster!
Anyway, back on topic...
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--Greg
My Home
MF count: 54
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I'm not an old fogey, I'm just an old coaster rider..
A roller coaster has a relitivly small amount of drag from wind and otherwise, but a very high weight also. A long train like Millennium Force could reach speeds of will over 120 MPH given a very long drop.
A paper roller coaster can be extremely acurate. When a real roller coaster is manufactured, the parts are made close to specs but not exact. The amount of time and effort spend on getting better parts is dependant on the tolerances.. Much more time is going to be spent where tolerances are very smaal. When the trains are moving very fast means that any error in design will be magnifed when compared to a slower section. More time and money won't be spend ot sections with high tolerancly such as station track because it's a waste of money.
Being a food service person I can tell you that cockroaches is a big deal and no, they are not present wherever humans are. They need a food supply (carbohydrates). Basically if you've got a cockroach problem, you've got some major sanitation issues (exposed food, rotting walls, "danger-zone" conditions), hence their closure.
And no, there are not any cockroaches at Cedar Point that threaten our foods as those stands are kept in excellent shape. I should probably mention I've worked at both Six Flags and CP as an area supervisor, so I've got a little first hand experience. It's a well-known fact in the industry that SF isn't doing so hot and they think that by cutting corners here and there they'll make up some of the money, so really this should come as no surprise. In terms of cleanliness and thoroughness CP runs circles around SF's best.
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'02, '03 Foods Area Sup (area 3)
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MANTIS ROCKS 2002 & 2003
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--Greg
My Home
MF count: 54
Ignoring friction, the sums of the potential and kinetic energies must be equal:
1/2mV(1)^2 + mGH(1) = 1/2mV(2)^2 +mgH(2)
Where:
V(1) = the initial velocity, provided by the hydraulics
H(1) = the height of the hill
V(2) = the velocity at the bottom of the hill
H(2) = the hill's drop
First, we cancel out the m's, and set the H(1) to equal H(2):
1/2V(1)^2 + mGH = 1/2V(2)^2 +mgH
subtract mGH from both sides, and then multiply by 2:
V(1)^2 = V(2)^2
or, V(1) = V(2)
Thus, if the height of the drop is the same (which for all intents and purposes, it is) then the velocities will AT MOST be equal at the bottom of the hill. There is no other place to get any force from.
Friction slows things down as the speed is turned into heat and sound. It will always subtract from speed, never add to it, so the speed at the end of the hill will be slower than at the beginning.
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Come on people, this poetry's not going to appreciate itself!
*** This post was edited by tremor 4/22/2003 11:13:39 AM ***
V = sqrt( 2W / Cd*r*A)
where:
V = terminal velocity
W = weight of the car
Cd = drag coefficient
r = density of the air
A = cross-sectional area
The weight of the car, as mentioned in a previous thread, is 15 tons, or 13,608 Kg. The drag coefficient I estimated at .4, which is a little worse than a car. The cross sectional area I also estimated as 2 meters squared, and the density of air at sea level is 1.225 Kg/m^3. Plug all those numbers into the above equation and we end up with a velocity of 166m/s, which is 372 mph. I don't think we'll be reaching terminal velocity on this ride any time soon :)
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Come on people, this poetry's not going to appreciate itself!
Without another launch, the train's speed will obviously decrease due to friction. By how much.. i do not know.
Just be happy with the fact that if it is launched at 120, you will still likely be going 100+ right before the brakes. That 20 mph will make absolutely no difference.
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Ryan McCanimal
Webmaster of Thrillgallery.com
"eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
And science is NOT boring, thanks.
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Come on people, this poetry's not going to appreciate itself!
tambo said:
You guys take all the fun out of riding coasters! I pray that I am never standing in line near any of you, because I would definately fall asleep before I got a chance to ride. Could you be more boring?
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tambo
What kind of response is that? If someone would have said, "Just trust me." I'm sure none of us would care what they had to say. But when they actually work out the equations so that we see that they are correct it adds onto the subject matter.
Isn't the basis of message boards to have a discussion over a certain subject. Not explaining one's reasoning counteracts the whole purpose for a message board.
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...and the most anticipated event of summer 2003 is...
The Matrix: Reloaded!
How do you think rides are designed in the first place? It's not like someone took out their K*nex set, put some pieces together and said, "Hey! This one looks good... Let's make one like this out of real steel!" There's actually science involved, and the fact that people on these boards understand it is pretty impressive. It's cool to know how something works.
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~Lee~
Group Sales ATL '01
Group Sales TL '02
Park Admissions Zone 5 Supervisor '03
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"The greatest leaders don't take credit for their actions; they don't have to."
tambo said:
It's still boring stuff.
Bah.
Science makes things more fun, not less fun. We would not have gotten very far as a society without scientific curiosity. Yay science, I say.
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you are minimally exceptional...
***This post was edited by rogue kielbasa 5/4/2003 10:02:47 AM***
Also, and expert may want to comment on this, but it is my belief that a loaded train will maintain its speed better than an empty train, for this reason: the additional weight (e.g. mass) will conserve more energy than that lost due to the (slightly) greater friction (increased rolling resistance of the tires). So given two trains, the fully loaded one will tend to maintain its speed while the empty one will peter out sooner. (Feather vs bowling ball - which one falls faster
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