News Article: Worlds Smoothest Roller Coaster Ride

[chadster]

From Fox News:

 

WASHINGTON (ISNS) -- At the age of 74, retired roller coaster designer Werner Stengel still spends his days riding the latest loop-de-loops.

 

"Trying to explain the thrill of a roller coaster to someone who has never ridden one is like trying to explain color to a blind person -- you just have to experience it for yourself," said Stengel, who in 1975 created the first modern roller coaster loop, built for Six Flags' Magic Mountain in California.

 

But for summer vacationers who are tired of having their heads jerked around by the laws of physics, Swedish mathematicians have published new designs for what could be the smoothest, most comfortable way to flip head over feet.

 

Using the same equations that describe how the planets orbit the sun, Hanno Essén of Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm drew a series of potential roller coaster loops that have one thing in common -- the force that riders would feel pushing their stomachs down into their seats stays exactly the same all the way around the loop.

 

Riders would get the visual experience of a loop without any whiplash.

 

"If you were in a car without windows and the track were perfectly smooth, you would not know that you were in a roller coaster," said Essén. "You'd just be pressed to the seat by a constant force."

 

This force, the centripetal force, is the same one that prevents water from falling out of a bucket swung upside-down on a string. The shape of a loop determines how much of it we feel at different spots on the loop.

 

Early roller coaster loops -- including the first one, a 13-footer built in 1846 in Paris -- were simple circles. To make it all the way around without being pulled off at the top by gravity, coaster cars hit the circle hard and fast, shoving riders' heads into their chests as they changed direction with a sudden snap that occasionally broke their collarbones.

 

In the 1970s, Stengel talked to NASA to figure out how much force rider could safely tolerate. He created the modern standard: 6 G's, which makes a rider feel six times heavier than normal.

 

To improve safety, Stengel ditched the circle. He designed a new loop that pinched at the top, a shape borrowed from exit ramps on German highways. This clothoid curve -- which tapers from a gentler arc at the bottom to a tight curve at the top -- is standard in today's amusement parks, where loops are now up to 200 feet tall. It eases riders into a loop with a force of 3-4 G's at the bottom that gradually lessens on the side of the loop to, often, a feeling of weightlessness at the top.

 

The new Swedish design, which to the naked eye looks similar to a clothoid loop, would in theory smooth out these changes in force into one constant force, said Stengel. But he doubted that it could achieve this uniformity if actually built.

 

That's because roller coasters aren't as simple as a dot moving around a curve. They jostle on imperfect tracks and are slowed down by friction and wind resistance.

 

Even if the force could be kept constant, the riding experience would depend on where you sit. Passengers in the front and end cars feel greater G forces than those the middle cars at the coaster's center of gravity.

 

Different parts of a rider's body would also feel different forces, according to Ann-Marie Pendrill, who studies roller coasters at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

 

"Your head would feel a little lighter than your bottom," she said, explaining that the head is closer to the center of the loop, where the centripetal force is smaller.

 

For now, the new design will remain an academic exercise -- which, to veteran thrill seeker Stengel, is just as well.

 

"It sounds a bit boring to ride," he said. "Part of the fun of a roller coaster is being pushed around with changing forces."

 

I just hope at 74 I can still ride...

[Skycoastin Steve]

Some loops are up to 200 feet tall?

[chadster]

Dominators 135 foot loop is close to 200, well, closer to 200 than 100 is....lol

[KDcoasterMAN]

Superman: Krypton Coaster has the tallest at 145'

[looperdooper]

I think he may have been exadurating just a tad

[DOCTOR DOOM!!!]

Ah yes the General Public!

Millennium Force has a 767 ft drop!!!

SOB's loop was 218 ft!

FOF launches at 94 mph!

Should I go on?!

[FeelTheFORCE]

While I think it's great that designers are trying to make coasters more rider-friendly and last longer because of less extreme forces, I agree with Stengel in that one of the main fun things about a coaster is the constantly changing forces.

[rcg19]

Deleted by user

Edited December 29, 2010 by rcg19

[themeparkman25]

They say you learn something new everyday. That proved to be true today!

 

Thanks for posting! Next time I am driving a German exit ramp, I will think loop.

[B-RadG]

Personally I love B&M's loops on their sitting coasters that are forceful upon entry and give a pop of hangtime at the top. My favorite thing about Arrow's loops is getting slammed with Gs at the top. I can't imagine sustaining the same amount of Gs throughout the entire loop for the entire train, it just doesn't seem plausible because of all the possible variables but I'll be intrigued to see if anyone actually tries it. Like Werner Stengel, I love being thrown around and random force changes.

[cal1br3tto]

I think it would be a neat idea to use the design, even with the knowledge that it wouldn't turn out the way it looks on paper. It sounds like there would still be changing forces, but the loop would be smoother than what we are used to. Maybe?

[Hydraglow]

I can't imagine sustaining the same amount of Gs throughout the entire loop for the entire train

 

Schwarzkopf seems pretty good at that...

[MixedDrink]

I don't think it's all that necessary for loops to evolve into something smoother, B&M loops seem good enough to me.

 

Then again, this is coming from a guy who put's Mean Streak in his top 10.

[DBru]

I can't imagine sustaining the same amount of Gs throughout the entire loop for the entire train

 

Schwarzkopf seems pretty good at that...

 

Until the train goes through it backwards.

[chadster]

Like the article suggests, I doubt they will ever incorporate the design into a new coaster, however, there is a part of me that would like to see it happen just to try it out. I would almost fly to Sweden if they built the thing over there, TPR Trip anyone? But, in all reality, about the only people who would be able to tell any difference would be those of us in the coaster/theme park community. The GP probably wouldn't notice too much as most get on a ride, say they rode it, and never think twice about it.

[Tmcdllr]

I can't imagine sustaining the same amount of Gs throughout the entire loop for the entire train

 

Schwarzkopf seems pretty good at that...

 

Almost to perfection.