Law Of Heights?

[DoinItForTheFame]

Hey everyone, I have a quick questions for you all.

 

(I've done a google search, and a search here on the forums and I got nothing. So I apologize if this has already been discussed.)

 

Many years ago while watching a travel channel theme park show I remember someone saying "...and then _______ law kicks in and your body perceives the height to be twice what it actually is...." Recently I've been trying to find this "law" which I am assuming is like a Newton law or something, and I have found nothing. I was hoping someone here has heard of this before, and knows what it is called.

 

While on topic. Have you ever been on a roller coaster and you perceive it to be twice as tall as it actually is. IE: you're on a 100ft coaster but it seems like you are 200ft up?

 

I always have this altered perception on drop towers. Anyone else have it as well?

[JonnyRCT3]

I think this may be what you are looking for - Emmert's law

 

 

Which can be derived from - Forced perspective

[DoinItForTheFame]

^ That's the one.

 

Have you ever experience this while on a roller coaster and/or thrill ride?

[gerstlaueringvar]

So it is possible to create an illusion of higher drop if a park puts a photo of the first drop at the station because people might stare at it for a long time? That's really cool!

[Her0ofLime]

I don't know why, but on the ground, I always look at coasters to be SMALLER than they actually are. This always applys to me for B&M hypers, where on the ground 200ft looks like 75ft.

[rcjp]

^I get the exact same feeling. When I get to a park (especially if I've never been there) I get the feeling that the coasters are quite small but when I climb to the top it all feels quite taller. When I went to Portaventura this year (and I had actually already been there) I was looking at shambhala and thought: this is actually not so tall, how can this be the tallest in Europe? (when I did know it was properly tall). Then when I got on it and went up the lift I remember thinking: "That's more like it." as it felt taller.

[jmicha]

I don't get this on roller coasters, but on any flat ride I do. Drop rides and swings are the worst for me. I get extremely uncomfortable and then realize that despite feeling super high up we're still well below surrounding coasters I have no problem on. I just rode Black Widow at Kennywood the other week and that was probably the worst case of it I've ever had. I've never been quite as scared as I was on that ride. It just felt so insanely high. And then I went and rode Phantom's Revenge 5 times in a row without feeling like I was anywhere near as high up despite the opposite being true.

[rcjp]

^When I first saw Maxair at CP I thought it looked ridiculously small (given what I expected) but then when I was riding and swinging I felt it was quite taller (and really was as the structure itself is only 84ft tall but you reach 140 when riding). I remember looking at Gatekeeper to compare the sizes while on it and thinking "the height difference doesn't look like much".

[gerstlaueringvar]

I remember feeling MF, TTD as tall as Maverick when going down the big drops. Maybe Maverick's first drop is too good but it is such a weird feeling.

[LiMiT]

I get this feeling on high diving boards quite often.