MG

Although my school doesn't block TPR it still sets off their filters. That's how they noticed that I was using Firefox instead of IE since a TPR page had caused the filter system to take a snapshot of my page. My head of IT, whilst slightly confused about what TPR was more interested in my use of Firefox than TPR. Still really weird though that so many places block it.

^ Oh dear, I just simply assumed that you would be. I can't remember where the trip was meant to be going now. EDIT: Just found the flyers, well you're going to Thorpe Park, so you basically go past me Just out of curiosity why aren't you going to Legoland?

Lady GaGa - The Monster Ball at the O2 Arena, London and Leona Lewis at the O2 Arena, London

YAY you're finally here. Welcome to the UK guys. I would totally have been with you if it hadn't been for pesky end of school exams! Remember to call in on your way to Legoland!

^Thanks. Fortunately for me I live in the fairly Liberal UK and I'm in the South East which is fairly liberal so I shouldn't have too many problems, a bit of course, but not too much.

No one has told me/forced me to do it. I just can't stand lying to those around me any more. Thanks for the replies guys.

Gosh, I have now got to the point where I'm intending to come out as Bi to family and friends after my exams in the summer. I've just been so stressed of late, double identity problems and the just general feeling of living a lie. Finally I might have it over with. I don't know what the hell has been wrong with me emotionally of late. I'm normally really down to earth, fairly emotionless, but at the moment, I'm really emotional and everything. So weird. Maybe the stress of my exams is getting to me.

This guy always makes me happy. And yes, I have defected to the cult of Mac. Awww, he's so cute!

Umm, I'm sorry, but what on earth are you talking about?

I have never noticed Alton Towers to be particularly pricey, it depends where you eat. If you eat at Rita's then it will cost a fair bit, but if you eat somewhere else, like one of the outlets, it will be fine. It depends what you perceive as costly. I admit that I just accept that spending a day out at a theme park is going to be more costly than eating at home.

I said that on the first page. I compared it to a Huss Frisbee for similar forces for another person trying to compare rides.

Wow, what a silly error on my part. Of course, since I have merely calculated the magnitude of the force. I simply assumed since there appeared to be negative g on the graph that it must be correct. I'll go and have a look at their results again. I understand how positive and negative g work, it was the way that the graph was plotted was the problem. The graphs still show the overall magnitude of the forces which is still quite interesting to see.

I'm not sure I'm afraid, I've only learnt to deal with 2D forces so far at school. I used the formula the teachers had used on Stealth and applied it to the others. I'll go back and look at the data. Thanks for bringing it up.

Screamin' Swing should be nearly identical. Enterprises vary in size slightly I think, which would affect the G-force. I don't know which model Zodiac is.

^Zodiac is probably the most 'normal' Generally these are pretty intense rides. I'd expect Vortex to compare well to a Huss Frisbee. You can see that Vortex here pulls a cool 4.4g. Rush is pretty much the same as Skyhawk at Cedar Point Slammer is pretty intense, but not in a G force sense, just a being upside down sense.

Thanks guys ^^ I assume you're talking about the time axis. They don't all start at zero because sometimes the meters were started before the ride began. The data before then was simply deleted. So some start at zero, some don't. It doesn't make any difference to the data collected. As for the acceleration axis, this has been calculated in ms^2. That's meters per second squared. This is the standard unit for acceleration. 1g=9.8ms^2 The meters read out the results in a 3D sense with the acceleration in the X Y and Z directions. I then calculated the resultant of these to achieve the graphs. I hope that's cleared it up a bit ^I see what you mean and I have been thinking about that. It might be the person who was using the accelerometer forgot to start it in the station and only started it as they were waiting at the bottom of the lift.

Hey everyone, Every year my school operates a Physics trip to Thorpe Park for the Lower Sixth (that's people aged 16-17 for Non-UK). This is because Thorpe Park is about 10 minutes away from our school and they collect data that's helpful to their course. We collect data using Pasco Accelerometers in a vest format as shown below: This is from my original review when I visited last year with my school http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49856&hilit=+thorpe+park Last year I couldn't get hold of the results from the accelerometers but this year I HAVE THEM FOR YOU!!! The graphs below are of a few of the rides. Time is on the X axis and acceleration is on the Y axis. Acceleration is shown in ms^2. To convert this to "g" simply divide by 9.8 (or 10 if you want a quick glance!). Positive g is anything above 9.8, negative g is anything below 9.8. You can see that Saw has some pretty intense negative g. If anyone wants the original results readout just PM me and I'll email it to you. It's in an Excel document. Rush RIDE TYPE: S&S Screamin' Swing Zodiac RIDE TYPE: Huss Enterprise Vortex RIDE TYPE: KMG Afterburner Nemesis Inferno RIDE TYPE: B&M Inverted Coaster Stealth RIDE TYPE: Intamin Rocket Coaster Slammer RIDE TYPE: S&S Flyswat Saw The Ride RIDE TYPE: Gerstlauer Eurofighter

Hey, this has already been well answered but I'll just throw in my personal opinion. --Our laptop lists wireless connectivity as 802.11 b/g. Does that mean that we have to get a B or G router? Does that mean an N router wouldn’t work? Don't get B, it's too old. Get G or N. G is cheaper, N is faster. You decide. Won't make any difference to the stuff you already have. --Any recommendations on specific brands of routers? I would personally recommend Belkin, I've had good results with theirs. Also Thomson are probably ok, since they are the ones supplied by most of the ISPs in the UK. --Do we need a certain router to be able to do wireless printing? Nope, as long as you are happy having it sit next to your desktop it will be fine. The printer can simply work off the desktop machine by a process called 'printer sharing'. There is help available from Microsoft for that. (assuming both your machines are Windows!). My family used this system for years without a hitch. What's best about this method is it is completely free, but you do have to have your desktop on all the time for the printer to work. If you are a little scared in getting involved in stuff like that, then you are probably just better getting a standalone wireless printer. This doesn't require it to be connected to a powered-on computer. --Do we need to buy a new printer that says it does wireless printing or would any printer work for wireless printing? If buying a new printer, must say Wireless Printing. --Do you have any recommendations as far as anti-virus and/or spyware programs? Are any of the free versions any good? I want to make sure our new laptop is well protected! I recommend the fantastic Avast Free Antivirus and Comodo Firewall Pro, both of which are free, and both of which outperform many of their paid-for rivals. AVOID NORTON AT ALL COST!!!

V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villian by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. (he carves a "V" into a sign) The only verdict is vengence; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. (giggles) Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V. Evey: Are you like a crazy person? V: I'm quite sure they will say so.

Sorry Grant, but I don't know what your degree means! It's a completely different education system. I'm guessing that you're a university student so I may be unqualified to answer your questions. Now for the questions: 1) By the 'force' I assume you mean the business moving into the area. Merely the presence of an amusement park does not necessarily mean that any existing parks are going to be negatively affected by it. It all depends on the demographics, like the example of London I used earlier. The demographics often determine what the park aims to be, a park with a young target audience is likely to be a family park, the visitors are likely to be slightly wealthier due to their more mature years. A park with a teenage target audience is likely to be a thrill park, its visitors are likely to be significantly worse off as a result of their age. In essence, 2 even 3 amusement parks can operate in the same area without affecting each other. It's just like cars, teenagers want a cool fast small car, whereas families with children are going to want a larger, safer car. 2) Florida, I'm not so familiar with the parks but I've got a general idea, especially note the conversion of Cypress Gardens to Legoland. Florida is fairly unique in that many of the parks are famous enough to be visited merely as tourist attractions, and not as a side product as a result of a different holiday Here is my list: Universal - Teenagers Disney - Families with young children Busch Gardens - Teenagers (I think! I'm bound to be corrected) [Merlin Entertainments] Cypress Gardens=>Legoland - becoming for families with young children [Merlin Entertainments] Sea World - Families with older children [Merlin Entertainments] There are also the water parks which act as a seperate entity to the other parks. As you can see, the main conflicts are Universal-Busch and Disney-Legoland. Merlin has a growing power which could become the main topic of your essay. 3) Merlin would be a serious contender in the industry, although its parks are slightly less well known, they are still world class attractions nevertheless. However they are unlikely to significantly negatively affect Universal and Disney directly simply due to the huge numbers of visitors involved in visiting these attractions. 4) There isn't really much of a threat to the industry. All parks in this area (excluding Cypress Gardens) largely do well to my knowledge. There may be the threat of a slight monopoly by Merlin, this seems to be affecting other cities as well, including London. It would also be interesting to point out that the parent of Merlin Entertainments is the private equity firm, Blackstone. They apparently have a significant stake in Six Flags as well. I'm sure if I have made any factual errors I will be quickly corrected by my fellow members. As for links, it isn't really a formal research area, therefore few hard facts actually exist. You simply have to use knowledge of other businesses and apply that to the amusement industry. They work in exactly the same way. Hope this helps Any more questions

What sort of level is this being aimed at? How old is your brother? I do Geography so I can analyse this sort of stuff quite well. London is actually quite a good example of how markets can conflict. Thorpe Park, CWOA and Legoland Windsor. Thorpe Park changed its target demographic from 8-12 year olds to 14-18 year olds so that it wouldn't compete with it's sister park Chessington. However, originally as a competitor, Legoland began to affect Chessington, despite Legoland being aimed at 4-8 year olds whilst Chessington is aimed at roughly 6-10 year olds. Now they are all owned by the same company, Merlin, it is unclear what Merlin's final objective is. Since Chessington and Legoland pretty much directly compete, the only way that Merlin can play it is to attract local residents to Chessington, whilst relying on the tourism markets from further away to draw visitors to Legoland. There you have a report from your international correspondent.

It might be my initials, it might also be the name of a defunct British Car Marque. You Decide?

mmmm Times New Roman

I've noticed that UK adverts tend to be more about a story and less about a product than American adverts. American adverts *tend* to be the more unsubtle "BUY THIS BUY THIS!!!!". Some more famous British adverts include Cadbury: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY When you first see them you never guess what it is until the end. (unless you spot the glass and a half production logo)

I really liked this report. It sort of shows 'the other side' of TPR. Looks like you had a great time, my mum is constantly gunning for going on a Royal Carribean Cruise. This will just reaffirm her belief.