Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstoff from house stuff works dot com where
Speaker 1: smart happens. Hi'm our so brain with today's question, where
Speaker 1: should I sit to get the best ride on a
Speaker 1: roller coaster? If you've read how roller coasters work, then
Speaker 1: you know about the basic principles of a roller coaster ride.
Speaker 1: In its initial climb up the lift hill, a roller
Speaker 1: coaster builds up a reservoir of potential energy for the
Speaker 1: rest of the ride. The hills, valleys, and loops convert
Speaker 1: this supply from potential energy to kinetic energy and back again,
Speaker 1: causing the train to accelerate and decelerate. This acceleration, along
Speaker 1: with the up and down movement of the train, produces
Speaker 1: a strange sensation in your body. You're constantly being pushed
Speaker 1: in different directions. This sensation feels just like the pull
Speaker 1: of gravity, and the two forces, gravity and acceleration, and
Speaker 1: combine in interesting ways. When the force caused by acceleration
Speaker 1: and the force caused by gravity are in opposite directions,
Speaker 1: they cancel each other out to a certain degree, making
Speaker 1: you feel very light. When both are in the same direction,
Speaker 1: you feel very heavy. Rapidly switching between these two conditions
Speaker 1: is what makes roller coasters such an accelerating experience. Okay,
Speaker 1: so if that's the situation, then what makes one coaster
Speaker 1: car different from another. All of the cars travel over
Speaker 1: the same tracks, so gravity accelerates and decelerates them at
Speaker 1: roughly the same points. But in addition to feeling the
Speaker 1: force of gravity, each car is also pulled or pushed
Speaker 1: by the cars connected to it. It is this additional
Speaker 1: force that makes the experience a little bit different for
Speaker 1: the riders in each car. To understand how this works,
Speaker 1: imagine a coaster train reaching the top of a hill.
Speaker 1: As it ascends, it slows down because gravity is pulling
Speaker 1: on it from behind. But when the first car makes
Speaker 1: it over the apex, gravity starts pulling that car down
Speaker 1: the other side of the hill. Because of gravity's pull,
Speaker 1: the first car starts to accelerate, which accelerates the second car,
Speaker 1: which accelerates the third car, and so on. In this way,
Speaker 1: all of the rear cars are accelerated by the motion
Speaker 1: of the first car, so they all start accelerating at
Speaker 1: different points along the track. By the time the last
Speaker 1: car moves over the hump, gravity has already accelerated the
Speaker 1: first car a good bit. Consequently, the rear car will
Speaker 1: have a higher acceleration at the top of the hill
Speaker 1: than the first car did. This increased force essentially whips
Speaker 1: the car over the top of the hill, briefly pushing
Speaker 1: up on writers so they almost fly out of their seats.
Speaker 1: For many people, this is the best spot on a
Speaker 1: roller coaster throughout the ride because all the twists and
Speaker 1: turns are more pronounced. But in most coast or you
Speaker 1: can't see the track very well from the rear car.
Speaker 1: Your line of sight is blocked by the people in
Speaker 1: front of you. The visual component of a roller coaster
Speaker 1: ride is important because it gives you a sense of
Speaker 1: speed and peril. Coaster designers intentionally weave the track around
Speaker 1: all sorts of obstacles to make you feel like the
Speaker 1: ride is out of control. In a typical coaster design,
Speaker 1: the riders in the front car get an unobstructed view
Speaker 1: of all these obstacles whipping past them. In a coaster
Speaker 1: that has seats facing backward, the rear car offers the
Speaker 1: best of both worlds. You get a great view and
Speaker 1: the most intense ride. The best seat on a coaster, then,
Speaker 1: is a matter of personal taste. If you love the
Speaker 1: feeling of weightlessness, Head for the back. If you want
Speaker 1: the best view of the action, head for the front.
Speaker 1: The cars in the middle provide the weakest ride, but
Speaker 1: it's a good bet you'll still have a good time.
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