Why do coasters that have a spike such as TT2 or Pantheon seemingly have the cars go almost to the end of it? I love rollercoasters and typically have no concerns for the safety of rides. I recognize there is rigorous testing and obviously people much smarter than me are designing them with very precise specifications. However, looking at pictures of the cars at that point in the ride, they are extremely close to the end of the spike. How are they able to not fly off backwards, especially at such high speeds and with such force? Why do the engineers of these not include more track “wiggle room” at the top as an added precaution?
In: Engineering
I’ve always wondered about the physics behind roller coasters. Looking forward to the explanation.
It seems like they’re ending up at the top of the spike, but they’re not. It’s an optical illusion because from the ground as an observer, the spike seems super high, so the videos you take with a telephoto lens (makes far things appear closer) perpetuate the illusion. If you’re a rider, the video is taken from a very wide angle to capture your face and the surroundings which squeezes everything behind you (the opposite, closer things seem bigger and anything behind you seems so small), so the tip looks smaller than it is. From the ground POV it looks like they’re touching the tip of the spike when they’re far from it. The “wiggle” room you mention is already factored into the equation. The train launches with a certain motor power, and it’s extremely predictable where it will end up. Beyond that, there’s always a failsafe that makes sure the train doesn’t go flying off, which almost never needs to be engaged because of energy conservation.
The end of the track at the tower are probably closed off so there’s no chance the carts will just pop out. There are likely a series of emergency brakes at the top as redundancy safety, a series of sensors and linear induction motors to calculate the exact acceleration the carts can safely reach without causing real danger.
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