Need "Myths/Wives Tales" about your body on coasters!

[strwrse1]

Not necessarily a myth but common misconception is that you can still ride during pregnancy. While all parks have it posted at most rides as a safety hazard, most will not forbid it unless you actually confirm you are pregnant. I myself have had to make numerous announcements operating a ride & someone who clearly looked to be pregnant still ingored the announcements & rode. And this was an inverted Roller Coaster where the restraint would clearly be in the way.

[Mr P]

"If you throw up at the top of Oblivion's Drop, you'll catch up with it and it'll hit you"

 

Although it's specifies Oblivion, I'm sure any Dive Machine would fit the bill...

[rcjp]

^Hummmm.. that's a nice one. Still, there is a chance that the vomit will fall a little slower than the train as air resistance might affect it more so in that case you could just miss it!

[LiMiT]

At SFOG, I always hear people's excuses for chickening out of DDD because they see that there is no over-the-shoulder support and it has inversions. It would be cool to test how different restraint styles are capable of holding riders in their seats through various maneuvers.

[Steveg1988]

What seat is really the smoothest on a given type of coaster, many think it is the middle seats, but is that true?

 

Does the back travel faster than the front through the ride, overall?

 

Can a suspended coaster cause a decapitation if someone were to get in the way of your legs? (I read an article on weird deaths on cracked.com and a coaster death from a batman ride and someone wandering into the safety area beneath it at the wrong moment, it sounded like the head got punted away from how they wrote it.)

 

What damage can wildlife induce on a rider, like how hurt can you get from a bird strike, butterfly, bee, etc that gets in the way.

 

Also, one thing that would help operators, and the rest of humanity. Show what happens if someone below the height limit goes on a ride by using a dummy. That way people will see what can go wrong.

[rcjp]

^Usually the front is the smoothest but that might depend on the ride.

Obviously the back travels at the exact same speed the front does but different parts of the train do go through the same place in the track at different speeds.

Yes, decapitation has occurred (he was hit by an empty train), if you get hit by a rider's foot (which has also happened) you will probably be killed but not decapitated.

I've never been hit by an animal (except for small mosquitoes) but I think a man was once hit by a goose on Apollo's Chariot but I'm not sure how badly injured he was.

I don't know, it might not be that simple (you can't show how a small child will handle the forces using a dummy).

[Steveg1988]

^Usually the front is the smoothest but that might depend on the ride.

Obviously the back travels at the exact same speed the front does but different parts of the train do go through the same place in the track at different speeds.

Yes, decapitation has occurred (he was hit by an empty train), if you get hit by a rider's foot (which has also happened) you will probably be killed but not decapitated.

I've never been hit by an animal (except for small mosquitoes) but I think a man was once hit by a goose on Apollo's Chariot but I'm not sure how badly injured he was.

I don't know, it might not be that simple (you can't show how a small child will handle the forces using a dummy).

 

Jamie and Adam could help with that last one

[Rollercoaster Rider]

You can ride a looping coaster without needing any kind of restraints

Lack of supports make a ride more dangerous

Roller Coasters can run in 0 Degree Temperature

Wooden Coasters can withstand wind speeds of up to 80mph

Do different rows of coasters provide different Lateral/Positive/Negative G-Forces

[cmullin]

I've always wondered what the real story is behind "losing your stomach" on a steep or sudden drop.

[TheCoasterGOD]

Riding super intense coasters, repeatedly, can give you serious brain injuries (regardless of your Coaster tolerance)

[Ducky dude]

I got one!

 

Can a roller coaster ride make you discombobulated for a small period of time (As in about 10 minutes).

[SbSteveZ]

^Usually the front is the smoothest but that might depend on the ride.

Obviously the back travels at the exact same speed the front does but different parts of the train do go through the same place in the track at different speeds.

Yes, decapitation has occurred (he was hit by an empty train), if you get hit by a rider's foot (which has also happened) you will probably be killed but not decapitated.

I've never been hit by an animal (except for small mosquitoes) but I think a man was once hit by a goose on Apollo's Chariot but I'm not sure how badly injured he was.

I don't know, it might not be that simple (you can't show how a small child will handle the forces using a dummy).

 

Jamie and Adam could help with that last one

 

I was literally thinking the same thing. Honestly this show seems to have great potential already, but if they were to have Jamie and Adam tag along for an episode or two, I could see a definite boost in viewers!

 

How about the safety of the chords on those "Sky Coaster" and sling-shot rides? Like, how are they tested to be sure they were safe? And how likely is it that they could potentially break?

[Guy T. Koepp]

I've never been hit by an animal (except for small mosquitoes) but I think a man was once hit by a goose on Apollo's Chariot but I'm not sure how badly injured he was.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Fabio!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8PgcCe3P_c

 

I thought there was actual footage of the goose hitting him, but I couldn't find any.

 

Perhaps what they could explore in the show could be the exact pounds per square inch that something like that actually caused?

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Is there a smooth enough coaster that would not crack an egg? (Insert B&M jokes here)

[DBJ]

I remember this story about the Tower of Terror. I think it would be interesting to know whether or not a drop tower ride like TOT actually does have any health benefits to the rider.

 

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/ailing-woman-sues-disney-for-kicking-her-off-ride/nJk2x/

[robbalvey]

Is there a smooth enough coaster that would not crack an egg? (Insert B&M jokes here)

You must not have ever seen this update.... http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=173&linkid=6791

[jbottgen]

Lot of people mentioned brain damage, but to go more specific, does riding rides, especially rough or bouncing, cause minor concussions? This is big in sports right now, because minor concussions do add up over time to become a major problem.

[robbob1991]

I don't know if you would be aloud to do it, but the original UK oblivion advert featured a race between a ball of sweat falling and the ride train, with the train beating the sweat to the bottom of the drop.

 

Obviously it would all depend on how quickly sweat reached terminal velocity and the gap between sweat falling and train falling. But iv always thought the sweat would win everytime.

 

You could easily stretch the Myth out for 15 min though

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Is there a smooth enough coaster that would not crack an egg? (Insert B&M jokes here)

You must not have ever seen this update.... http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=173&linkid=6791

 

 

Maybe try it on a Looping Coaster

[Jhcbiinoc]

I can think of a few things offhand:

 

-Many times when I post photos of a new coaster being built that I want to ride, or photos of one I love, my non-enthusiast friends are always responding with comments like "OMG just looking at that makes me want to hurl, that would make me so sick" without knowing anything about the ride experience...there seems to be this assumption that all coasters are designed to make people sick or scare them to death. (In reality, I have always found that the scarier and more insane that a coaster or a ride looks, the better and more fun it is!)

 

-A lot of people-myself included at one time-had this fear of a launch coaster like Xcelerator going too fast and shooting off the top and derailing.

 

-And of course, there is always the "It doesn't look safe, how do you know it won't fall out?" meme.

 

-Another one I have heard is "What do all of the forces do to your internal organs over time? Can intense G-forces cause of create permanent damage like a brain aneurysm?"

 

-And last but not least, my favorite is "Coasters always go faster at night." I would love to see some research as to why most coasters seem more intense after it gets dark. I know for a fact that a few coasters just seem to move faster or become more intense; is it the track cooling off at night, or the wheels warming up all day, or is it just an illusion?

 

That is all I can think off offhand, if I think of any more I will add them. This could be a really interesting show!

[milst1]

My favorite is that old chestnut, mainly for wood coasters I think, that "it's better to sit in the back because it goes faster!" It's funny because of course the entire train is always traveling at the same speed as itself, but the sentiment is understandable because it is true that different parts of the train do travel over different points on the track at different speeds, e.g., the front of the train crests the lift hill slowly but the speed has clearly increased by the time the back of the train crosses the apex. Sorry if someone mentioned this already; I kinda sped through some of the posts.

[AustinKnight]

do like rollercoaster myths and other stuff and why we ride them and other stuff like that

[SkiDude02]

Since it seems like a lot of people are on the possible brain dammage from riding too many coasters with high g forces, why not take that to spinny centrafusal rides (e.g. Mission Space)? -- Or would the Mouse be too touchy on that topic?

[weatherfreak]

The more it twirls you're likely to hurl, if it flips, dives and glides you're more likely to survive.

 

This is true for me in regards to flat rides that spin, unlike the zipper that flips and coasters. I've never been sick but my friends and I made this up in our teens in the 80's

[GSR]

Has a "full" study of the "whiplash effect" while riding in the last car of a long coaster train been done? How different are the forces/speeds between the rides in the front car vs. rides in the last car at various points on the track?