How Do Roller Coasters Work?
By admin. Filed in Articles |
When you ride a roller coaster, you probably notice the chain / conveyor belt assembly that pulls the train of cars up the first big hill. What you may not know is that once that conveyor belt trip is over, the cars are powered by nothing but their own kinetic energy. Roller coasters were invented in Russia in the late 1880s and are a specialized type of railroad. The reason they can roll on their own kinetic energy is that the trip up that first hill raises the train’s potential energy. The higher the hill, the greater the potential energy. The more potential energy, the more kinetic energy (or sustained movement) will result as the cars descend the opposite side of the hill.
While most coasters feature an initial lift hill, not all of them do. Some are set in motion by a hydraulic launch, and can attain higher speeds more quickly than traditional coasters. Not all coasters run in a loop. Coasters known as “shuttle coasters” run through the tracks forward, then go backward through the same course.
If a roller coaster is designed correctly, it will have enough kinetic, or movement energy to complete the entire course of the coaster, then toward the end, brakes are used to bring the train to a stop as it approaches the loading / unloading platform.
If a continuous circuit coaster has insufficient kinetic energy to travel the course after climbing the first (and highest) hill, the train can “valley” or roll forwards and backwards along the track until it uses up all its kinetic energy.
In 1959, California’s Disneyland theme park introduced the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the first coaster to use a tubular steel track. Previously, coasters had been made with conventional rails on wooden railroad ties that limited the shapes coasters could take. Tubular steel, however, can be bent in any direction. This means that loops, corkscrews, and other maneuvers can be incorporated into coaster designs. While most coasters today are steel, there are some wooden coasters still being built. Coaster enthusiasts say that even though wooden coasters can’t do loops or corkscrews, they are just as frightening as steel coasters because they have greater side to side movement during the journey.
Tags: Amusement Park, Roller Coaster, Theme Park, Theme Park Ride, Theme Park Uk.