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Asked by to David, Johanna, Linda, Tamas, Tom on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: Do you have a interest in Rollercoasters and are there any science investigations that could lead to a good brand new rollercoaster!
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David Davila answered on 19 Jun 2014:
I love rollercoasters!
Probably the best science leading to new more exciting rollercoasters is coming from people who study construction and safety physics-y kinds of things, and I don’t really know what’s going on there. But I would hope they’re working towards making faster, higher and more exciting ones, don’t you? =D
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Linda Cremonesi answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Rollercoasters are always an interest to scientists I guess. Building Rollercoasters is very challenging because on one side you need to think of people’s fun and on the other side you need to think of people’s safety.
Rollercoasters are strongly dependent on gravity (i.e. the force that attracts you towards the floor), so what happens usually is that the small train is pulled up and then you go down only because of gravity.The latest models pull up the trains via magnetic induction (using a strong magnetic field, it’s the same principle that keeps a magnet attached to your fridge door), so that it’s fun also the “going up” bit.
There are very strong limits though on building rollercoasters which mainly come from the maximum force that a human body can actually bear.
I might be wrong, but I think we are already pushing these boundaries quite a lot so I’m not sure what the future for rollercoasters is. -
Thomas Smith answered on 27 Jun 2014:
A new breed of rollercoasters might involve cars flying around in vacuum tubes (tubes with all the air sucked out). Without air to get in the way, the cars can go really really fast. The trouble with this is that we probably shouldn’t call them rollercoasters, as there won’t be any wheels!
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