Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and
Speaker 1: I am the tech editor here at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Sitting across from me, as he usually does,
Speaker 1: is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, and hey, Chris,
Speaker 1: let me ask me something. What do you think when
Speaker 1: you hear this? I think I probably shouldn't have eaten
Speaker 1: lunch right before this podcast. I'm not feeling so well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and everyone else thought, there's probably thinking roly coasters. Uh,
Speaker 1: So we decided we wanted to talk about how roller
Speaker 1: coasters work. Um now, now, Chris, uh, are you a
Speaker 1: roller coaster fan? Yeah? Is that a lie? No, it's
Speaker 1: not a lot checking But but I'm not an extreme
Speaker 1: roller coaster fan. I'm not the kind of person that
Speaker 1: travels across country or sometimes around the world to find
Speaker 1: the biggest and fastest and most terrifying roller coaster. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm generally quite happy with the stuff down at the
Speaker 1: local amusement park, and honestly, I'm a fan of the
Speaker 1: wooden roller coaster. Yeah, those are. If they're well maintained,
Speaker 1: they're great, and if they're not, they will beat you up.
Speaker 1: I d like it when they beat you up there. Yeah, gosh, Okay,
Speaker 1: Well I've got a coaster for you to ride. Um.
Speaker 1: I am also a fan of roller coasters. I would
Speaker 1: not call myself a die hard fan because I have
Speaker 1: Also I've only taken trips to like Cedar Point. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna say, but that's a good place to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's across the country from where we are. I haven't
Speaker 1: I haven't specifically gone to things like King's Island or
Speaker 1: anything like that to ride all of the roller coasters
Speaker 1: out there. But I do love roller coasters, and I
Speaker 1: love the really super mega coasters too, the really really
Speaker 1: tall ones love them. So we thought we'd talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about what makes roller coasters work. Yes, and uh,
Speaker 1: maybe we should give a little history of the roller
Speaker 1: coaster first. And this is uh, if you've already seen
Speaker 1: the the episode that High Speed Stuff did. Uh, they
Speaker 1: took a little bit different tech on the roller coaster
Speaker 1: than we're going to I think. Yeah, they talked most
Speaker 1: They talked mostly about the tallest and the fastest and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Yeah, definitely good check out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk more about the actual mechanics behind roller coasters, so, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to know about the fastest
Speaker 1: and tallest ones, definitely check out the High Speed Stuff episode.
Speaker 1: It's archived, so the history of roller coasters. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna go to France for this. Yeah. Actually, if you
Speaker 1: want to go even further back, the genesis of the
Speaker 1: whole idea of the roller coaster just comes from the
Speaker 1: fact that human beings we as a whole, are insane,
Speaker 1: and occasionally we like to throw ourselves down inclines and
Speaker 1: see how fast we can go before we come to
Speaker 1: a stop, whether that's sudden or hopefully a nice, gradual,
Speaker 1: gentle stop. Yeah. You know, I was thinking that very
Speaker 1: thing when I was watching the ski jumpers at the Olympics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not too long ago. What made somebody decide to you know, hey,
Speaker 1: I wonder how far I can go? Right, this is
Speaker 1: a really tall, tall mountain. I want to strap some
Speaker 1: wood to my feet, slide down at a blistering speed
Speaker 1: and then jump off something. Yeah, that would, I would say,
Speaker 1: be the same sort of the the thrill seeking part
Speaker 1: within US that generated roller coasters France that kind of
Speaker 1: took an idea that had already seen some uh some
Speaker 1: success in Russia, which was essentially a series of slides
Speaker 1: that would go down mountains that were you know, those
Speaker 1: slides were covered in snow or ice and people would
Speaker 1: slide down them. Um. So that's the you know, the
Speaker 1: roller coasters based off of just a slide. Now, the
Speaker 1: roller coaster in France that you're thinking about, I believe
Speaker 1: is a that was the first one that was a
Speaker 1: documented case of a cart on a track. Yes, and
Speaker 1: that was which was an attempt to uh to actually
Speaker 1: take the Russians idea and make it something that you
Speaker 1: could do all the time because Russians, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: in in France, snow is not always on the ground.
Speaker 1: So if you don't have snow, you don't have something
Speaker 1: to uh to make that trip down the hill at
Speaker 1: least a little pleasant. Then you have to build tracks
Speaker 1: and have a cart with wheels on that track so
Speaker 1: it goes down the predefined Um tut well, I was
Speaker 1: going to use a word other than the track, but
Speaker 1: on that track. And the first American coaster was a
Speaker 1: it was a converted coal train. Yes, it was not
Speaker 1: the saxophone player. No, no. So this this coal train
Speaker 1: would go up a really nice picturesque mountain in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: and then um, once it got to the top, while
Speaker 1: it was only one way to go back, and that
Speaker 1: was back the way you came. So they would just
Speaker 1: essentially kind of a roll backwards, screaming all the way
Speaker 1: down as people held on for dear life. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure it was very bumpy and chaotic ride. And I
Speaker 1: would go on at five times so that I'm sure, however,
Speaker 1: that it had not been inspected every day like modern
Speaker 1: day roller coasters. Yeah, I definitely would have. I would
Speaker 1: have been taking my life into my own hands, especially
Speaker 1: after ride number one. Uh So this leads us to
Speaker 1: the Wooden roller coaster, which is kind of the basis
Speaker 1: of all coasters that followed. And the Wooden coaster is
Speaker 1: a is a thing of beauty. I'd say, you know,
Speaker 1: the famous one in Atlanta is the Great American Screen Machine. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: my my favorite would be uh thunder Road at Paramounts
Speaker 1: Caro Wins near Charlotte, which is where I grew up.
Speaker 1: I have not written that one, so let's bumps and
Speaker 1: and and jolts on that one, right, Yeah, well then
Speaker 1: the wooden ones, dude, tend to build that up. So
Speaker 1: it's based on the principle of gravity pull stuff down. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well there's some other stuff in there too. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: basically gravity is one inertia shore cy triptal force if
Speaker 1: you want to get technical. But blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So the basis of our roller coaster is that some
Speaker 1: sort of mechanism pulls you up to the top of
Speaker 1: a very tall hill and then the and you must
Speaker 1: raise your hands in the air as this is happening, apparently,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to do it, all right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get mailed about that, and you get the answer
Speaker 1: it so aren't you supposed to raise your hand? And
Speaker 1: I always wondered that, Okay, it's gonna take a good
Speaker 1: seven minutes to get to the top of this hill.
Speaker 1: Why is everybody raising their hands? Now, well, it's people
Speaker 1: who are nervous. I assume at any rate, the once
Speaker 1: you get to the top of the hill and you
Speaker 1: start going down, then gravity pretty much does the rest
Speaker 1: of the work for you, and you are pulled along
Speaker 1: the track. You might depending on the older coaster have
Speaker 1: a second hill that will there will be some sort
Speaker 1: of mechanism to pull you up the second hills that
Speaker 1: you've finished the rest of the trip, or if the
Speaker 1: first hill is tall enough, that might be it. That
Speaker 1: might be the enough to generate the h the the
Speaker 1: energy you need to complete the entire ride. Now, in
Speaker 1: the case of most wooden roller coasters, this energy is
Speaker 1: generated through a chain lift, which it's just the sound
Speaker 1: of the that's part of it. Yeah, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: There's there's actually a second element that also can make
Speaker 1: that ratcheting noise. But uh, the way a chain lift
Speaker 1: works is that along the first hill there is a
Speaker 1: length of chain that's and sort of a conveyor belt configuration,
Speaker 1: and it's being turned by a very large engine and
Speaker 1: and some wheels. So the underneath the coaster train itself
Speaker 1: are a series of hinged hooks and uh, the the
Speaker 1: term for this is chain dogs. So the chain dogs
Speaker 1: hook into the chain the loop of chain. The chain
Speaker 1: as it turns or as it is propelled up the
Speaker 1: hill through the turning gear, pulls the coaster up to
Speaker 1: the top. And as the coaster gets toward the top,
Speaker 1: the hinged hooks unhooked from the chain, and uh, the
Speaker 1: coaster is pushed over the very top of the hill
Speaker 1: and it goes down and then gravity does the rest. Right.
Speaker 1: So it's a very simple mechanism really when you look
Speaker 1: at it, I mean, there's there's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: to it beyond that. Um, as far as getting the
Speaker 1: train started, now, stopping the train is a different matter.
Speaker 1: Well not entirely in a way, because you're moving basically.
Speaker 1: For those of you who have taken physics yet, I
Speaker 1: know some of you probably haven't yet because we have
Speaker 1: some younger listeners. Um, going up the hill, you've got
Speaker 1: lots and lots of potential energy, energy that's being built
Speaker 1: up or or just waiting to be released, I should say.
Speaker 1: And as soon as you get to the top of
Speaker 1: the hill and it the train starts to go over
Speaker 1: the hill, it's it changes into kinetic energy, which is
Speaker 1: you know, who look out, we're moving, but very good stopping.
Speaker 1: I think that's actually in most textbooks, who look out
Speaker 1: we're moving? It Well, it wasn't mine, although I have
Speaker 1: to admit it was written in blue ink next to
Speaker 1: the text, so maybe it wasn't put there by the publisher.
Speaker 1: But that said, getting to the to the end of
Speaker 1: the line. Um, you know, by by putting hills in
Speaker 1: strategic places, you can use those to slow the train
Speaker 1: down by converting that kinetic energy back into potential energy,
Speaker 1: right and through things like friction, that's always going to
Speaker 1: take away some of your energy. You lose energy in
Speaker 1: the form of heat, so the coaster will generate he
Speaker 1: does it's moving around, and that that also means that
Speaker 1: you have a net loss of of energy. So your
Speaker 1: your coaster is going to slow down over the course
Speaker 1: of the track, unless, of course, you were to somehow
Speaker 1: maneuver it so that it hit a infinite hill going downward.
Speaker 1: But um, no one's figured out how to do that yet,
Speaker 1: or else I would have written it already. Actually you'd
Speaker 1: still be on it. Yes, technically I would still be
Speaker 1: writing it. I'm calling you from the infinite roller coaster
Speaker 1: and so anyway, um, so yeah, you've got Now. Now
Speaker 1: here's a couple of things for us to talk about.
Speaker 1: The breaking system. I mean, there is usually a breaking
Speaker 1: system at the end of the track, because other ways
Speaker 1: you just have to wait for its a coast to
Speaker 1: an end. Um. But I imagine that would be far
Speaker 1: less effective if you didn't use other methods to slow
Speaker 1: the train down enough to let the breaking system. Sure,
Speaker 1: but you know most coasters have been on there's a
Speaker 1: there's a very audible and physical breaking moment where you
Speaker 1: you're actually thrown forward a little bit from the coaster
Speaker 1: coming to a stop. Is that that explains the permanent
Speaker 1: indentation I have across my forehead from from the seat
Speaker 1: in front of you. Um. So, the the coaster has
Speaker 1: these fins that go down below the the coaster to swim.
Speaker 1: The fins are used as part of the breaking mechanism. Now,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of different ways you can use
Speaker 1: the breaking mechanism. You could have one that just uses
Speaker 1: physical friction. So the the brakes are all built into
Speaker 1: the track, not into the train. So the right Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the track has this this breaking section along part
Speaker 1: of it. As the train passes through the brakes, UH
Speaker 1: initiate and then close in on the fins and then
Speaker 1: slow or and slow the train and then stop it. Um.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to necessarily just be physical like that.
Speaker 1: You can also use magnets. You could have a you
Speaker 1: can have fins on the coaster that have a metal
Speaker 1: that reacts to magnets, and then you use very powerful
Speaker 1: magnets which will gradually slow and and then stop the
Speaker 1: train from moving, sort of the the opposite of a
Speaker 1: magleev train, Not literally an opposite, but the magnets to stop.
Speaker 1: There are coasters actually use magnets to to push a train,
Speaker 1: but there there aren't a whole lot of coasters like that,
Speaker 1: but we'll talk about those in a second. So, um,
Speaker 1: the other thing you have to remember is that there are, uh,
Speaker 1: there are other wheels on the coaster itself that helped
Speaker 1: prevent it from flying off the track. Yes, so you
Speaker 1: usually have a set of wheels. First of all, there's
Speaker 1: the set that's on the track itself. There's usually a
Speaker 1: set that's on either side of the track to keep
Speaker 1: it from slinging off to the left or right, and
Speaker 1: then there's a set underneath the track to keep it
Speaker 1: from flying off when you go uphills. That would be
Speaker 1: sort of a buzz kill. Yeah, there's nothing quite like
Speaker 1: having your coaster corene off the roller coaster track to
Speaker 1: really ruin your time at the fair. Yes, that would
Speaker 1: that would need to do that. As a friend of
Speaker 1: mine once said, I will ruin your whole day. So
Speaker 1: that's the traditional coaster chain lift. That's what you see
Speaker 1: on wooden coasters most of the time. And wooden coasters
Speaker 1: have a lot of limitations because they need, you know,
Speaker 1: you need to build that that really strong support to
Speaker 1: keep the coaster stable. That's where you see all that
Speaker 1: lattice work, where all the cross beams that are supporting
Speaker 1: each other, which is why most wooden coasters don't have
Speaker 1: things like inversions and version of course, will be any
Speaker 1: time where the coaster is turned upside down. Um, you
Speaker 1: don't see many of those in wooden coasters. I've heard
Speaker 1: there have been a couple that have done it, but
Speaker 1: it's it's not easy to do just from the the
Speaker 1: standpoint of you have to be able to support the
Speaker 1: track also, of course, would is something that ages with
Speaker 1: the the environment. You've got a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: heating and cooling, expands and contracts the wood plus you know,
Speaker 1: rain and other things termites. I mean, these are things
Speaker 1: that you have to be wary of because when you're
Speaker 1: building the infrastructure for a roller coaster, obviously you want
Speaker 1: to keep it safe, so you're uh, you know, no
Speaker 1: one gets hurt, so it requires quite a bit of maintenance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's why most coasters, wooden coasters take a formation
Speaker 1: of what I always heard as an out and back.
Speaker 1: It goes out through the park and then comes back
Speaker 1: to where started. Um, there aren't. It's the thrills of
Speaker 1: the ride are all based upon the hills. You know,
Speaker 1: how high you go up on that first hill, how
Speaker 1: fast you're going when you hit the bottom. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: angle of the drop so that it you know, makes
Speaker 1: your stomach feel like it's dropping out right, right, So
Speaker 1: those would be where all the thrills are come from
Speaker 1: from those, But then came tubular steel coasters. Now these
Speaker 1: are the monsters that let you do things like inversions,
Speaker 1: cork screws, em molment's, uh loops, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And uh, these are the coasters I love. Yeah. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: the steel being you know, certainly more weather resistant um
Speaker 1: than the wood, and uh, of course it can be
Speaker 1: made into all kinds of shapes, um, so you can
Speaker 1: you can do all kinds of things. And it also
Speaker 1: allows you to do in addition to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: things simple the bends and things, you can also do
Speaker 1: different kinds of you make different kinds of cars, like
Speaker 1: the stand up and sit uh. You know, the inverted
Speaker 1: and suspended cars right where the track is above you. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the ones that make you feel like you're flying through
Speaker 1: the air. Yeah. But you can't do that with a
Speaker 1: wooden coaster, because you have to you can. You can
Speaker 1: do all these things with the track and subsequently build
Speaker 1: the cars to take advantage of that. Right, so you
Speaker 1: can also put in new forms of launching your coaster.
Speaker 1: So some some tubular coasters still use the the chain
Speaker 1: lift method, which is, you know, the same way they
Speaker 1: all the wooden ones do. Well, it works, but a
Speaker 1: lot of them also use, or rather instead will use
Speaker 1: something like a catapult launch, yes, which, as you would
Speaker 1: imagine it, it is, uses a device to launch the
Speaker 1: train very quickly from a standing position to full speed. Um.
Speaker 1: And there are various ways of doing that. Some of
Speaker 1: them use linear induction motors uh. And that's where you
Speaker 1: generate an electromagnetic field to uh to move the coaster
Speaker 1: along the track. Now, there aren't very many of these
Speaker 1: there only I think maybe half a dozen to a
Speaker 1: dozen or something like that, just because it's i mean,
Speaker 1: that's a very technical way of doing it, and there
Speaker 1: are other ways that are not as technical as people
Speaker 1: have found to be easier, so you don't see those
Speaker 1: uh that often. But another method just uses a series
Speaker 1: of wheels on either side of the coaster. Yeah. Can
Speaker 1: I tell you a story? Go ahead. So the very
Speaker 1: first time I got on the Hulk ride UM down
Speaker 1: in Orlando, Florida. UM, I we my wife and I
Speaker 1: were sitting in the car and looking up the hill
Speaker 1: and we saw, you know, of course we're at that point,
Speaker 1: we were on a chain lift, so because they were
Speaker 1: sort of man, you know, doing that to do the
Speaker 1: bulk lifting, if you will, to get us started up
Speaker 1: the hill. So we're looking up and I see all
Speaker 1: these wheels spinning on either side of the track, and
Speaker 1: suddenly my mind flashes back to this hot wheels set
Speaker 1: of my brothers, which had a little rubber wheel on
Speaker 1: either side of the track, and I said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the the wheel they use to you know, propel
Speaker 1: the cars around the hold on. That was about the point.
Speaker 1: That was about the point at which we caught those wheels,
Speaker 1: and the wheels spin in opposite directions of from one another,
Speaker 1: and just the car takes off exactly the same principle
Speaker 1: that you see and things like like automatic baseball pitching
Speaker 1: machines where it's just it's using that amazing amount of
Speaker 1: friction to propel you forward. And uh so that's that's
Speaker 1: what it works. Yeah, it does work. And then there
Speaker 1: are hydraulic and pneumatic launch systems. Now, hydraulic launch systems
Speaker 1: these are pretty cool. They use the hydraulic hydraulic pumps
Speaker 1: which pump fluid into a piston. Right, So you've got
Speaker 1: one side of the piston, the wet side, which is
Speaker 1: where the hydraulic fluid is pumped in, and you have
Speaker 1: the dry side, which has gas in it. Alright, So
Speaker 1: as you're pumping fluid in, it's pushing the piston towards
Speaker 1: the the gas end, which is compressing the gas, and
Speaker 1: you create and credible amount of compression. Yes, Now, when
Speaker 1: you've built up that compression to a certain amount, you
Speaker 1: are able to release that compression, which then uh generates
Speaker 1: enough energy to move some a winch very very very quickly. Now,
Speaker 1: the winch pulls a line which is attached to the
Speaker 1: the the base of the coaster itself forward. So the
Speaker 1: winch is turning really really fast. It's pulling a line
Speaker 1: kind of like if you were reeling in a fish, right,
Speaker 1: but reeling in a fish faster than any human being
Speaker 1: could ever reel a fish in. This pulls the coaster
Speaker 1: forward and launches it from the standing still to oh
Speaker 1: my god, I can't believe how fast we're going. Yes,
Speaker 1: they've been on several of these. Then there's also the
Speaker 1: pneumatic one, which uses air compressed air to launch vehicles.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar in a way, although it doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, there's no there's no hydraulic fluid there. There
Speaker 1: aren't very many pneumatic launch coasters. Most of the catapult
Speaker 1: ones that you, okay, uh find in amusement parks today
Speaker 1: are of the hydraulic launch variety or use the wheels
Speaker 1: on either side the friction method. Uh So, I was
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about a very specific um
Speaker 1: launch coaster just because it's a good example, the top
Speaker 1: thrilled Dragster at Cedar Point. Okay, this coaster is a
Speaker 1: very simple coaster in a way. Uh. It has a
Speaker 1: straight track from the launch point that then shoots straight
Speaker 1: up four d and twenty feet. You turn ninety degrees
Speaker 1: and you come back down that that hill and then
Speaker 1: you come to a stop so uh at launch when
Speaker 1: you when by the time you are starting to go
Speaker 1: up that hill, the coaster is going approximately a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty miles per hour UM. It's pretty fast. What's
Speaker 1: really interesting is that there are computer systems that judge,
Speaker 1: based upon the weight of the train, how much energy
Speaker 1: is going to be needed to to propel the train
Speaker 1: up and over the hill. Now, ideally you're going to
Speaker 1: use just enough energy for that to barely happen, right,
Speaker 1: because you don't want to use too much. You don't
Speaker 1: want to propel them too quickly or else they're gonna
Speaker 1: be coming down that hill faster than they are supposed to. However,
Speaker 1: if you don't use enough, well, then you start to
Speaker 1: slide backwards. So sometimes it does happen. I actually saw
Speaker 1: that I've written this this coaster. I'm sure several of
Speaker 1: our listeners have also written it UM and I have
Speaker 1: seen while waiting in line a coaster come back down
Speaker 1: the hill. It's not as scary as you would think.
Speaker 1: There are permanent magnets in the track that activate after
Speaker 1: the train goes by that slow the descent, so it's
Speaker 1: not like it's not like you're hurtling down a hundred
Speaker 1: twenty months per hour. They had to have been prepared
Speaker 1: for such an eventuality if they were, you know, concerned
Speaker 1: enough to put in a system that would automatically detect.
Speaker 1: So the magnets are are what save you in that sense.
Speaker 1: And their permanent magnets are not electro magnets because of
Speaker 1: course they were like tromagnets and there was an electricity failure,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have the electricity to generate the magnetic field.
Speaker 1: So with permanent magnets, they're all there's always a magnetic
Speaker 1: field involved. They don't have to worry about, you know,
Speaker 1: the somehow losing the ability to generate the electromagnetic field. Um.
Speaker 1: It's a great coaster, by the way, especially if you
Speaker 1: can ride in the very front car. I'll take your
Speaker 1: word for it. I wrote it twice. Um, not my
Speaker 1: favorite coaster, but it is a pretty good one. Um.
Speaker 1: Let's see that pretty much covers the basis the basics
Speaker 1: of roller coasters. Uh. I mean, as you mentioned, there
Speaker 1: are those that are suspended coasters where the track is
Speaker 1: above you, but they work pretty much on the same
Speaker 1: principles as the ones where you're you're on top of
Speaker 1: the track. That's the beauty of roller coasters is that
Speaker 1: while you can put in new tricks and twists and
Speaker 1: things like that, the the basis for the entire ride
Speaker 1: is still grounded in physics. Pretty neat it is. Indeed. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get very technical and talk about
Speaker 1: inertia and all that stuff from the science lab. I
Speaker 1: will thank you to keep your science out of my
Speaker 1: tech stuff, just like I just like the fact that
Speaker 1: we have another podcast where I can I can conveniently
Speaker 1: so uh. And I was also going to mention, uh.
Speaker 1: Suspended coasters also have a pivoted joint. Many of them
Speaker 1: have a pivoted joint so that when you go yeah,
Speaker 1: so that when you go around turns, you swing out.
Speaker 1: Like we're doing this stuff. It's too bad this isn't
Speaker 1: a video podcast. But yeah, when you go around, when
Speaker 1: you go around curves, because it's a pivoted joint, you
Speaker 1: swing out due to centripetal force and that that also
Speaker 1: those can be a lot of fun. Not all of
Speaker 1: them have the pivoted joints. Some of them are more
Speaker 1: or less locked into place. Um. Now we also can
Speaker 1: talk a little bit. There are most of these these
Speaker 1: modern roller coasters have very sophisticated computer systems in them,
Speaker 1: which have sensors along the track that can tell the
Speaker 1: master computer system where each train is, how fast it's going,
Speaker 1: and uh, if there's a problem, can activate the various
Speaker 1: braking systems along the tracks so that there are no collisions.
Speaker 1: So when everything's working fine, Uh, if something were to happen,
Speaker 1: like let's say that a train stalled out for some reason,
Speaker 1: maybe the chain lift uh stopped, or maybe a train
Speaker 1: for some reason did not make a hill that it
Speaker 1: was supposed to. Um, the operator can shut down the ride.
Speaker 1: Some cases it's all automated and the operator has even
Speaker 1: taken out of the equation. Uh. But these are just
Speaker 1: pretty basic sensors, really proximity sensors. They're usually very sensitive.
Speaker 1: But it's not like there are anything special, you know,
Speaker 1: that's unique to the roller coaster industry. UM. And of course, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the state regulators and I'm pretty sure every
Speaker 1: state are required to go out and check these. Motion
Speaker 1: pretty much takes care of that. Yeah, yeah, well it
Speaker 1: depends on the I don't think OSHA actually does the
Speaker 1: roller coaster inspections, do they? Well, they definitely come in
Speaker 1: if there's ever any problems Okay, because that was under
Speaker 1: the impression that in most cases is the state that's
Speaker 1: responsible for that. But I am well, I know that
Speaker 1: I know that whenever there's a I know that whenever
Speaker 1: there's an incident making air quotes that that OSHA does
Speaker 1: come in and does an investigation. So if nothing else,
Speaker 1: you do the the you know, administrative work so that
Speaker 1: you don't ever have to endure that because it only
Speaker 1: is a legal nightmare, it's a pr nightmare. And plus,
Speaker 1: I mean, people just no one wants anyone to get
Speaker 1: hurt while they're operating stuff for boxers, UFC fighters. Okay,
Speaker 1: some people do, but not in roller coasters, right, And
Speaker 1: of course uh and of course, um, you know, make
Speaker 1: sure that when you're interested in writing one of these
Speaker 1: machines that you follow the instructions because you know, people
Speaker 1: of a certain height, people of a um you know,
Speaker 1: if you have and medical conditions, you shouldn't be writing
Speaker 1: these things because especial forces can be a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and the safety equipment on these things is designed
Speaker 1: for for a pretty wide range of people. But if
Speaker 1: you fall outside that range of people, you definitely shouldn't
Speaker 1: be on the coaster because there's no guarantee that safety
Speaker 1: equipment is going to work for you. Yes, and so
Speaker 1: um yeah, as as some like when I was very little,
Speaker 1: I know that I wasn't allowed to go on a
Speaker 1: certain roller coaster because I didn't quite make the height requirement.
Speaker 1: When I was bigger and I got the ride that
Speaker 1: I saw why because I had the shoulder harness thing
Speaker 1: and it would have gone right over my face, Like
Speaker 1: my face would have been partially blocked by the shoulder
Speaker 1: harness coming down because it was one of the the
Speaker 1: U shaped ones and that would not have been a
Speaker 1: very comfortable ride. So it was fault for the best.
Speaker 1: So what's your favorite roller coaster of all time? Um,
Speaker 1: keeping in mind that, uh, you know, I'm not into
Speaker 1: the super duper preaky cool coasters like you like the
Speaker 1: kiddie coasters already established that, Um, just going by by
Speaker 1: my personal favorite, like by how much I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I think the dueling dragons down at Universal Studios. That's
Speaker 1: not kidding coaster. Well, no, it's not good. It's not
Speaker 1: like you know, it's not like the you know, I
Speaker 1: like both of them. I like the fact that that
Speaker 1: they can make it feel like that's one of the
Speaker 1: cool things about coasters is they they like putting you
Speaker 1: in these tunnels where you feel like you're gonna lose
Speaker 1: your head, even though it's way there's no way you
Speaker 1: could ever do that. And when you're when they raise
Speaker 1: the Fire and Ice Dragon coasters, you feel like you're
Speaker 1: gonna touch You see the feet of the people on
Speaker 1: the ride and it looks like you're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: smack into them. My favorite is whichever side ends up
Speaker 1: going up a wall at one point, and I can't
Speaker 1: remember which side. Didn't remember now it's been ten years,
Speaker 1: it's been a while since ever. My favorite is the
Speaker 1: Millennium Force at Cedar Point. Yeah, fantastic roller coaster, and
Speaker 1: it's mainly for the first drop, which is really really intense.
Speaker 1: Goliath over at six Flags is pretty good to it.
Speaker 1: If you can't ride the Millennium Force and you're in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: go ride Goliath over six Flags because it's not I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say it's equivalent because I'm letting them force.
Speaker 1: I think it's still a superior coaster, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a good coaster, especially if you you know, you're like
Speaker 1: me and you don't mind the mind numbing drops if
Speaker 1: enjoy those, That explains why never mind. Well, I guess
Speaker 1: that wraps it up for roller coasters. Why don't we
Speaker 1: go on to a little listener mail. This listener mail
Speaker 1: comes from George, and George says, Hey, I have an
Speaker 1: iPhone three G and I'm wondering which is safer three
Speaker 1: G or G p r S because I'm always hearing
Speaker 1: that phone signals cause radiation. But I kind of believe this,
Speaker 1: So could you please tell me which is safer or
Speaker 1: gives out less radiation? Thanks? Love the podcast. Well, George,
Speaker 1: I hate to break this to you, but cell phones
Speaker 1: work on radiation. It's all the frequencies that are coming
Speaker 1: in and out of your cell phone that that's energy
Speaker 1: that is radiating from your phone going to your phone.
Speaker 1: All cell phones give out radiation apparently, or when you
Speaker 1: talk then when you listen. I found out the other day. Now,
Speaker 1: radiation does not necessarily mean that it's harmful. Radiation is
Speaker 1: just that's energy moving out. That's it doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: it's harmful energy. Now, as far as cell phones go,
Speaker 1: these studies are inconclusive right now as to whether or
Speaker 1: not cell phone use Extended cell phone use causes any
Speaker 1: kind of physiological effect, like whether it would be uh
Speaker 1: a cancer or if it would uh negatively affect your
Speaker 1: brain functions. There's just not enough information there for anyone
Speaker 1: to really say for sure. The information we do have
Speaker 1: so far suggests that if there are any harmful effects,
Speaker 1: it's gonna have to come after years and years of use,
Speaker 1: because there's just not a lot of documented cases of
Speaker 1: it out there. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Speaker 1: And really, when it comes down between three G and
Speaker 1: gprs not a whole difference, because you're just talking about
Speaker 1: two different frequency bands, and most of of the information
Speaker 1: and I've seen suggests that depends more on the cell
Speaker 1: phone than it does the frequency on which it is broadcasting.
Speaker 1: Some cell phones are gonna be powerhouses, and some cell
Speaker 1: phones are not gonna be able to transmit through cardboard.
Speaker 1: Although the location of the antenna apparently does make a
Speaker 1: difference to some cellphones have the antenna farther away from
Speaker 1: your head, some closer. Um, I'm sure that the people
Speaker 1: who are most worried about it will tell you that
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. It's all radiation and it's right next
Speaker 1: to your head. Um. So well, George I guess what
Speaker 1: we're saying is that keep looking for studies about it,
Speaker 1: because no one's really uh definitively come down and said
Speaker 1: whether or not they cause any harm in the future. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm still using my three G cell phone. I'm
Speaker 1: not too worried about it. Uh. So you know, keep
Speaker 1: an eye out. You've got an iPhone. There's probably an
Speaker 1: app for that. Um and uh if we hear anything
Speaker 1: else will up to it, will probably do an episode
Speaker 1: about it. So if any of you have any questions, concerns, criticisms,
Speaker 1: you want to tell us what your favorite roller coaster is,
Speaker 1: you can write us. Our address is tech stuff at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Remember we have a live
Speaker 1: show every Tuesday at one pm Eastern and you can
Speaker 1: find that at our blogs blogs dot how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. And Chris and I will talk to you
Speaker 1: again really soon. Come on, let's go, let's go, right,
Speaker 1: Okay for moral on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: is a how stuff works dot com and be sure
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