121 Fun Facts About Roller Coasters

Which inventor opened the Switchback Railway at Coney Island in 1884, often called America's first modern coaster?

LaMarcus Adna Thompson charged a nickel for a 600-foot coast at about six miles an hour; the ride was so popular that he earned back his $1,600 investment in three weeks.

What do riders feel when a coaster hits negative G-forces?

Floating up out of the seat is what negative g-forces feel like: the track drops away faster than riders fall, so they rise against the lap bar. Fans call the gentle kind 'floater' airtime and the violent kind 'ejector'.

Which roller coaster was the world's tallest at 456 feet (139 m) until its closure in 2024?

Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure stood 456 feet and held the height record from 2005; the park closed it in November 2024 and demolished the tower three months later.

On which coaster type do trains hang under the rails while riders' legs dangle free?

Inverted coasters fix the seats to a wheel carriage that runs under the rails. The first, Batman: The Ride, opened near Chicago in 1992 and proved such a hit that copies were built at parks around the world.

Which manufacturer built the original Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America in 1992?

Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), a Swiss firm, worked out the design with the park's general manager, Jim Wintrode, who wanted a hanging coaster that could turn riders upside down.

Which amusement park opened The Racer, a wooden racing coaster, in 1972?

Kings Island opened The Racer with the park in 1972; a 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch was filmed aboard it, and from 1982 to 2007 one of its two trains ran backwards.

What do coaster fans call a full-circuit roller coaster between 400 and 499 feet tall?

Strata coaster is the label Cedar Point introduced in 2003 for Top Thrill Dragster, the first full-circuit ride to pass 400 feet; 'giga' had already been coined for the 300-foot class.

Which coaster type holds its train at the edge of a vertical drop for a few seconds before letting go?

Dive coasters pause on a holding brake with riders staring straight down; the first, Oblivion, was sold in 1998 as the world's first vertical-drop coaster, yet its plunge is 87.5 degrees, just short of vertical.

The first modern roller coaster with an inversion, the Corkscrew, opened at which amusement park in 1975?

Knott's Berry Farm opened Corkscrew in 1975, turning riders upside down twice; the ride was sold in 1989 and rebuilt at Silverwood in Idaho, where it reopened the next year.

Which 2012 storm dropped the Star Jet roller coaster into the Atlantic off the Jersey Shore?

Hurricane Sandy collapsed part of Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, and the Star Jet went into the ocean with it; the coaster stood in the surf for six months until crews demolished it in May 2013.

Which Australian park's Great Scenic Railway, opened in 1912, is the world's oldest continuously operating roller coaster?

The Great Scenic Railway at Luna Park, Melbourne has run since 1912, the world's oldest continuously operating roller coaster; Lakemont Park's Leap-The-Dips (1902) is older but sat idle from 1985 to 1999.

Formula Rossa at Ferrari World reaches 240 km/h thanks to what kind of propulsion?

The hydraulic system fires the train from a standstill to 240 km/h in 4.9 seconds, fast enough that every rider is handed safety goggles against the desert sand and dust.

Which manufacturer built both Millennium Force and the original Top Thrill Dragster?

Intamin, whose name is short for International Amusement Installations, built Millennium Force in 2000 and Top Thrill Dragster in 2003; each was the world's tallest full-circuit coaster when it opened.

What do engineers call the force that pins you into your seat at the bottom of a drop?

Positive G-forces push riders down into the seat when the track curves upward at the bottom of a drop, so for a moment they feel several times heavier than normal.

Which roller coaster element is a half-loop followed by a half-roll?

An Immelmann loop takes its name from an aerobatic turn named after German First World War pilot Max Immelmann: the train climbs a half-loop, rolls upright at the top and heads back the way it came.

Disneyland's 1959 Matterhorn Bobsleds pioneered what track type for permanent coasters?

Tubular steel track, first used on a permanent coaster at Disneyland in 1959, could be bent into smooth curves that wood could not match, which opened the way to loops and corkscrews.

What do coaster designers call a hill shaped to lift riders out of their seats?

Camelback hills, also called airtime hills or bunny hops, work because riders' upward motion carries on at the crest while the track falls away, so for a moment they feel weightless.

Which roller coaster type carries riders face-down in a prone position, hanging below the rails?

Flying coasters harness riders face-down to give the sensation of flight; the first, Skytrak in Manchester, carried one rider per car, about 240 an hour, and closed the year after it opened in 1997.

Which Alton Towers coaster set a world record with 14 inversions when it opened in 2013?

The Smiler needs two lift hills to fit them all in: partway round, the train stops, then is hauled straight up a second, vertical lift to gain the height for the remaining inversions.

Which manufacturer rebuilt Iron Gwazi and Steel Vengeance using its I-Box steel track?

Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) of Hayden, Idaho, made its name by laying its steel I-Box track on the frames of ageing wooden coasters; Steel Vengeance (2018) and Iron Gwazi (2022) are both RMC rebuilds.

Which force slows many modern coaster trains with brakes that never touch the train?

Magnetism does the work: a metal fin passes between rows of magnets, and the eddy currents this sets up in the fin slow the train smoothly, with nothing rubbing or wearing out.

The roller coaster's earliest ancestors were wooden slides built in Russia and covered in what?

Ice covered the tall timber slides that Russians rode down on sleds; when the idea reached Paris in the early 1800s as the 'Russian Mountains', wheels took the place of the ice.

Which Coney Island wooden coaster, opened in 1927, was nearly scrapped before a 1975 rescue?

The Cyclone cost 25 cents a ride when it opened in 1927; by the early 1970s New York City planned to scrap it, until the owners of the Astroland park next door took it over in 1975 and refurbished it.

What do coaster fans call a ride that runs steel track on a wooden structure, or the reverse?

Hybrid coasters mix the two materials; fitting steel track to an old wooden structure gives a smoother ride that costs less to maintain, and can even add inversions the original never had.

What term describes a launched coaster train that fails to clear its tallest hill and returns to the start?

A rollback is planned for: when a train launches short, typically in cool, wet or windy weather, brakes on the launch track rise behind it and catch it gently as it comes back down.

Which coaster type did the manufacturer TOGO pioneer in 1982, then build from scratch as King Cobra in 1984?

Stand-up coasters began as conversions: TOGO refitted two existing coasters for standing riders in 1982, and its King Cobra of 1984 was the first designed that way from the ground up.

What kind of energy does a coaster train store as it climbs the lift hill?

Potential energy is banked on the climb and spent as speed on the way down, which is why the lift hill is normally the tallest point of the whole ride.

Which roller coaster was the first with interlocking loops when it opened in 1978?

The Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg threads one loop through the other; at first its trains were timed to meet in the two loops at the same moment, a trick later dropped.

Which Pennsylvania park is home to the coasters Skyrush, Storm Runner and Candymonium?

Hersheypark opened in 1906 as a leisure park for the workers of the Hershey Chocolate Company; Candymonium, added in 2020, is its tallest, fastest and longest coaster.

Which company's Boomerang coaster has been copied more than 50 times around the world?

Vekoma of the Netherlands has built more than 50 Boomerangs since 1984; each hauls its train backwards up a lift, sends it through three inversions, then runs the whole course again in reverse.

Which coaster type seats riders above the rails with their legs dangling over open air?

Floorless coasters have a floor only in the station: it drops away before the train leaves, so riders' feet hang just above the rails. The first, Medusa, opened in New Jersey in 1999.

Steel Dragon 2000, which opened in 2000 with a 2,479-metre track, is in which country?

Japan's Nagashima Spa Land opened Steel Dragon 2000 in the Year of the Dragon, which gave the ride its name; its 2,479-metre track stayed the world's longest for more than two decades.

What term describes an object's tendency to resist changes in its motion, felt on roller coasters?

Inertia is why your body keeps going straight when the coaster car turns: matter stays at rest or in uniform motion until a force changes it, so every lurch is you catching up with the track.

Which park is home to the coasters Leviathan, Behemoth and Yukon Striker?

Canada's Wonderland, just north of Toronto, sends Yukon Striker's riders down a 245-foot vertical drop into an underwater tunnel; Leviathan took the title of Canada's tallest coaster from Behemoth across the park.

Which roller coaster type has multiple small drops and tight, unbanked hairpin turns?

Wild Mouse cars are sent into hairpin turns with no banking, so each corner feels like the car will sail straight off the edge. Many run single or spinning cars on a compact, tight-winding track.

Ferrari World, home of the Formula Rossa roller coaster, is in which city?

Abu Dhabi built Ferrari World on Yas Island, far from the carmaker's Italian home; Formula Rossa became the world's fastest coaster when it opened there in 2010, with a layout inspired by the Monza racetrack.

Which roller coaster inversion joins two half-loops with a pair of half-corkscrews?

A cobra roll is named for its outline, which resembles a cobra's flared hood: the train climbs a half-loop, twists through two half-corkscrews and dives out of a second half-loop, turning upside down twice.

Which Florida park is home to the coasters Montu, Kumba and SheiKra?

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay began in 1959 as gardens attached to an Anheuser-Busch brewery; today its coasters share the grounds with the African animals of its Serengeti Plain.

Which inversion twists the train through a full 360 degrees as it crests a hill?

A zero-G roll twists the track 360 degrees while it rises and falls over a hill, so riders are weightless for a moment as they turn over, which is where the name comes from.

What term describes a coaster whose train reverses and retraces its route instead of completing a circuit?

A shuttle coaster never completes a circuit: the train runs out, stops and comes back over the same rails. The idea is as old as the ride itself, since the earliest coasters were built this way.

Cedar Point, billed as 'America's Roller Coast', sits on a peninsula in which Great Lake?

Lake Erie surrounds the Sandusky, Ohio, peninsula where Cedar Point opened in 1870, which is why a park known for its coasters also has a mile-long beach.

What do coaster designers call the small 'trick hill' placed right after the lift hill, which eases the load on the chain?

A pre-drop lets the front of the train dip while the rear cars are still hooked to the lift, which takes strain off the chain; it also fools riders into bracing early, hence the nickname 'trick hill'.

Silver Star, a 73-metre hypercoaster opened in 2002, is at which German park?

Europa-Park named Silver Star after the three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz, its sponsor when the ride opened in 2002; the station building was first called the Mercedes-Benz Hall.

Which roller coaster type has cars swinging freely from a track above?

Suspended coasters hang cars that swing out freely on the turns, by as much as 100 degrees on The Bat of 1981; that first modern example was plagued by wear and closed after three seasons.

On which coaster type do riders sit beside the track with nothing above or below them?

Wing coasters seat riders on either side of the track with nothing above or below them; many pass through a 'keyhole', a gap cut so close that the outer seats look sure to hit it.

Pennsylvania's Mauch Chunk Railway, an 1827 downhill line that became a model for early roller coasters, was built to carry what?

Coal rolled nine miles downhill under nothing but gravity, with mules hauling the empty cars back up; before long the afternoon runs carried passengers instead, at 50 cents a ride.

The 1895 Flip Flap Railway gave riders whiplash because its loop was built in what shape?

A circle was the problem: the Flip Flap's 25-foot loop curved so tightly that it punished riders' necks. Its 1901 successor tried an oval, and modern loops are teardrop-shaped to ease the forces.

Two doctors won a 2018 Ig Nobel Prize for testing whether roller coaster rides help patients get rid of what?

Kidney stones: the pair rode a Disney coaster 20 times with a silicone model kidney in a backpack, and found that the back seats shook stones loose most often.

Many languages call coasters 'Russian mountains'; what do Russians literally call them?

Russians call roller coasters amerikanskiye gorki, 'American hills', while Spanish says montaña rusa and French montagnes russes, each language pointing at the other country.

The German word for roller coaster, Achterbahn, refers to which number?

Eight is the 'Acht' in Achterbahn, which began as Figur-8-Bahn because early layouts traced a figure of eight; Dutch uses the near-identical Achtbaan.

The first mine train coaster, Runaway Mine Train, opened in 1966 at which park?

Six Flags Over Texas opened Runaway Mine Train in 1966, the first of the many mine train coasters that followed across America; its finale plunges into a tunnel beneath the park's lake.

Before he designed roller coasters, Ron Toomer worked on the heat shield of which spacecraft?

Ron Toomer worked on the Apollo spacecraft's heat shield before turning to coasters in 1965; he suffered from motion sickness, and said he had ridden his own rides just enough to know what they were like.

John Miller's 1919 patent stopped coaster cars leaving the rails by adding wheels where?

Beneath the rails is where Miller's underfriction wheels run, gripping the track from below so the cars cannot lift off; that made steeper drops and sharper hills safe to build.

Which TV detective show lent its name to the 1989 coaster that first topped 200 feet?

Magnum, P.I. was a hit show when Cedar Point named Magnum XL-200 in 1989; 'XL' stood for extra long and '200' for the 200-foot barrier the ride was first to break.

The Big One, the world's tallest coaster in 1994, opened under which sponsor's name?

Pepsi Max put its name on The Big One from the 1994 opening until 2011; the 235 feet once advertised was measured from sea level, and the structure itself stands 213 feet tall.

Which 1996 Japanese coaster took the world height record from Blackpool's Big One?

Fujiyama opened in 1996 at 79 metres and held the height record for full-circuit coasters until 2000; its name plays on what foreigners call Mount Fuji, which the Japanese know as Fujisan.

Which S&S coaster was shut down in 2021 after riders reported broken bones?

Do-Dodonpa's compressed-air launch hit 180 km/h in 1.56 seconds; the ride was suspended in August 2021 after several riders reported broken bones and never ran again.

Which 2011 coaster's 121-degree drop made it the world's steepest for eight years?

Takabisha opened in 2011 with a 121-degree drop, the world's steepest until 2019; its name means 'high-handed' in Japanese, though its kanji literally read 'high fly car'.

TMNT Shellraiser, which opened in 2019 with a record 121.5-degree drop, is inside which mall?

TMNT Shellraiser sits inside Nickelodeon Universe at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey; its 2019 soft opening was briefly halted because the coaster lacked an operating permit.

Six Flags Qiddiya City, home of the first 'exa coaster', is in which country?

Six Flags Qiddiya City lies outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the Qiddiya entertainment mega-project announced in 2017 under the kingdom's Vision 2030 plan to diversify away from oil.

Which firm rebuilt Top Thrill Dragster into the triple-launch Top Thrill 2?

Zamperla's 2024 redesign of Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster added a second 420-foot spike and replaced the hydraulic launch with LSMs that fire the train forward, backward, then forward again.

The original Space Mountain opened in January 1975 at which resort?

Space Mountain opened at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom on January 15, 1975, sponsored by RCA; Disneyland's version followed in 1977.

Why does Disney keep rides like Expedition Everest just under 200 feet tall?

To avoid aircraft warning lights: aviation rules call for a flashing red beacon on structures that reach 200 feet, so Expedition Everest stops at 199.5 feet and its mountain illusion stays intact.

Which creature guards the Forbidden Mountain on Expedition Everest, the Himalayan-themed coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom?

The Yeti's queue-line 'museum' holds about 8,000 artifacts brought back from a research trip to Nepal, all of it skipped by the single-rider line.

Why can't Epcot's Cosmic Rewind coaster use the Marvel name in its title?

A 1994 contract with Universal still governs Marvel in Florida's theme parks; it predates Disney's 2009 purchase of Marvel, which is why Orlando's Marvel rides stand at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Which Disney coaster, opened in 1979, sends a runaway train through Old West mining country?

Big Thunder Mountain began as one piece of a huge western pavilion planned for Florida; when that proved too expensive, Imagineer Tony Baxter proposed building its mine train as a ride of its own.

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure replaced which pair of intertwined rides?

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure opened in 2019 on the site of Dragon Challenge, the duelling coasters closed in 2017; more than a thousand trees were planted to grow its Forbidden Forest.

Jurassic World VelociCoaster was built on the site of which former Universal attraction?

Jurassic World VelociCoaster opened in 2021 on the former site of Triceratops Encounter, the closed walkthrough attraction; permits called it 'Project 791' and fans guessed the name from a 2019 trademark filing.

Kings Dominion's 305-foot coaster opened in 2010 named for which NASCAR driver?

Intimidator 305 was named for Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR's 'Intimidator'; its first turn was rebuilt after one season to cut the greyouts riders reported, and the ride has since been renamed Pantherian.

Steel Vengeance was rebuilt from which wooden coaster that had opened in 1991?

Mean Streak opened in 1991 as the world's tallest wooden coaster and ran for 25 years; part of its timber structure still stands inside Steel Vengeance, which opened on the same spot in 2018.

Which 2000 wooden coaster lost its vertical loop after a 2006 accident and fell in 2012?

Son of Beast was the only modern wooden coaster with a vertical loop, yet the loop was not what failed: a damaged section of track jolted riders in 2006, and the loop was taken out before the ride reopened with lighter trains.

Which 1979 wooden coaster, roughly 7,360 feet long, opened as the world's longest?

The Beast opened in Ohio in 1979 as the world's longest wooden coaster; its designers worked out every calculation by hand over two years, and the ride lasts more than four minutes through 35 acres of woods.

Which Holiday World wooden coaster, opened in 2006, boasts 24.3 seconds of airtime?

The Voyage opened at Holiday World in 2006 in the park's Thanksgiving section, themed to the Mayflower; it has five underground tunnels and 24.3 seconds of airtime, a wooden-coaster record when it opened.

T Express, the wooden coaster that took El Toro's steepest-drop record in 2008, opened at which South Korean park?

Everland opened T Express in 2008 with a 77-degree drop, one degree steeper than El Toro's; the ride took its name from a phone-company sponsor and was renamed Monimo Rush in 2026.

Which 2013 Silver Dollar City ride was the first wooden coaster with multiple inversions?

Outlaw Run flips riders three times because its owners wanted a world first: a wooden coaster with a double barrel roll. It also opened with a record 81-degree drop.

The Ride to Happiness, a spinning coaster in Belgium, is themed to which music festival?

The Ride to Happiness by Tomorrowland opened at Plopsaland De Panne in 2021, a Mack Rides spinning coaster themed to the Belgian dance festival, with five inversions and two launches.

Fury 325 at Carowinds crosses the border between which two US states during its ride?

Carowinds straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina line south of Charlotte, and Fury 325's layout crosses it; the giga coaster closed for over a month in 2023 after a visitor filmed a cracked support.

What pulls Millennium Force's trains up its 310-foot lift hill instead of a chain?

Millennium Force uses an elevator-style cable lift: a catch car hooks under the train's middle car and hauls it up the 310-foot hill; the ride was the first full-circuit coaster to pass 300 feet.

Why was far more steel than usual used to build Steel Dragon 2000?

Earthquake protection meant Steel Dragon 2000 needed far more steel than a typical coaster, which helped push its cost above 7 billion yen.

Which German engineer marked his 500th coaster design with Maverick in 2007?

Werner Stengel, whose Munich engineering office has designed over 500 coasters, marked his 500th with Cedar Point's Maverick in 2007; he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg in 2005.

Olympia Looping, a five-loop portable coaster, debuted in 1989 at which German fair?

Oktoberfest hosted Olympia Looping's debut in 1989; its five loops are painted in the colours of the Olympic rings, and the whole 900-tonne ride packs up to travel between fairs.

Nemesis was the third project in which numbered series of Alton Towers codenames?

Nemesis was developed as 'Secret Weapon 3'; because Alton Towers may not build above its treetops, rock was blasted away through 1993 so the ride could run in a pit.

Leap-The-Dips, the world's oldest standing coaster (1902), is in which Pennsylvania town?

Leap-The-Dips stands at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania; it closed in 1985, was restored after a fundraising campaign and reopened in 1999, three years after being named a National Historic Landmark.

In 2002, English Heritage gave the Scenic Railway at Dreamland Margate what protection?

Grade II listed status came in 2002 and was raised to Grade II* in 2011, when the 1920 ride was Britain's oldest operating coaster; a brakeman rode each train to control its speed by hand.

Riders straddle model horses and race on three parallel tracks on which Blackpool Pleasure Beach coaster?

Steeplechase opened at Blackpool in 1977 with the Grand National winner Red Rum at the ceremony; its three tracks, red, green and yellow, let riders race each other on horse-shaped cars.

Which Danish park has run a mountain-themed wooden coaster since 1914?

Tivoli Gardens opened Rutschebanen, Danish for roller coaster, in 1914; more than a century later an operator still rides aboard each train to brake it on the hills.

Which trade newspaper has handed out the Golden Ticket Awards for roller coasters since 1998?

Amusement Today, a trade paper founded in Arlington, Texas, in 1997, launched the Golden Tickets a year later and bases them on surveys of well-travelled park enthusiasts.

Which manufacturer went bankrupt a month before its final coaster, X, opened in 2002?

Arrow Dynamics filed for bankruptcy in December 2001, a month before X, its prototype 4th-dimension coaster, opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain in January 2002; the oversized ride's misjudged costs sank the firm.

Montaña Suiza, a coaster running since 1928, stands on a hill above which Spanish city?

San Sebastián's Monte Igueldo amusement park opened in 1912 and added Montaña Suiza, Spanish for 'Swiss Mountain', in 1928; a brakeman still rides aboard to control each train.

What does the wooden coaster Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer cross twice on a bridge?

A four-lane highway, Peninsula Drive, runs beneath Ravine Flyer II; state officials insisted the coaster's bridge be fully enclosed and painted the colour of the sky so it would not distract drivers.

Which Dollywood wooden coaster swapped its 2016 LSM launch for a chain lift in 2024?

Lightning Rod opened at Dollywood in 2016, billed as the first launched wooden coaster; after years of breakdowns the park removed the launch and fitted a high-speed chain lift for the 2024 season.

Riders lurch forward when a roller coaster train brakes, as described by which scientist's first law of motion?

Isaac Newton's first law says a moving body keeps going in a straight line at constant speed unless a force acts on it, so riders carry on forward until the restraints stop them.

A roller coaster train coasting through a vertical loop is moving slowest at which point of the loop?

At the very top the train is slowest because gravity has been working against it all the way up; once over the crest, the same pull speeds it back up.

Which real force, not the centrifugal push riders feel, bends a roller coaster train around a tight turn?

Centripetal force comes from the track pushing the train inward; the outward fling riders feel is only their bodies trying to carry on in a straight line, which is why physicists call it fictitious.

Which force from the air grows with the square of a roller coaster train's speed, slowing fast rides most?

Drag rises so sharply that doubling a train's speed quadruples the air's push against it. Along with losses at the wheels, it is why a coaster's hills shrink as the ride goes on.

Roller coaster riders who feel weightless over the crest of a hill are briefly in which physical state?

Free fall means dropping at the rate gravity alone dictates, so rider and train fall together and nothing presses between them, just as astronauts feel in orbit.

Negative g-forces arise when a roller coaster hill curves more tightly than which shape, a thrown ball's path?

A parabola is the arc any object follows when only gravity acts on it, so a hill of exactly that shape leaves riders weightless for a moment.

What do engineers call the g-forces that push roller coaster riders toward the outside of a turn?

Lateral forces are usually held under 2 g by tilting the track into each turn, which changes a sideways shove into one that presses riders downward instead.

In an ideal physics model, how does a full roller coaster train's speed after a drop compare with an empty one's?

The same speed results because a heavier train is pulled harder by gravity but is also proportionally harder to get moving, so the two effects cancel exactly.

Modern roller coaster loops follow which teardrop-like curve, also used to ease trains and cars into bends?

A clothoid tightens gradually instead of all at once, so the forces on riders build smoothly; railway and road engineers use the same spiral for their transition curves.

A roller coaster train moves fastest at the bottom of its biggest drop, where which form of energy peaks?

Kinetic energy depends on the square of speed, so a train moving twice as fast carries four times as much, all of it paid for by the climb before the drop.

Which force between wheels and track slowly drains a roller coaster train's energy all the way around the circuit?

Friction is why designers must leave a train enough spare energy to finish the course in any weather, since a little is lost on every stretch of track.

When brakes bring a speeding roller coaster train to rest, most of the train's energy of motion ends up as what?

Heat is where the energy goes whether the brakes squeeze a metal fin or work without touching the train at all; either way, the hardware warms up.

Which law of physics means an unpowered roller coaster train can never coast higher than its starting point?

Conservation of energy says energy can change form but never appear from nowhere, so a train released from the first hill has no way to climb above it.

Doubling which feature of a roller coaster's lift hill doubles the energy a train has stored at the summit?

Its height is all that counts: the energy a train stores equals its mass times gravity times how far it has been raised, however gentle or steep the climb.

The energy of a roller coaster train is measured in which SI unit, named after the son of a Salford brewer?

The joule honours James Prescott Joule, who managed his family's brewery while experimenting; one joule is about the energy needed to lift an apple one metre.

Which mid-course roller coaster devices can only slow a train, never stop it, to hold down speed and g-forces?

Trim brakes shave off only as much speed as needed: a sensor just ahead of them reads how fast each train is moving and decides how hard to grip, if at all.

A roller coaster's hills get smaller along the course because the train steadily loses which kind of energy?

Mechanical energy is the total of what a train holds through its position and its motion; the two trade places on every hill, but the total only ever shrinks.

Some 1970s Schwarzkopf roller coasters stored the energy for their launch in which heavy spinning device?

A flywheel weighing about six tonnes is spun to more than 1,000 revolutions a minute, then clutched to a cable that hauls the train; it replaced a launch driven by a falling 40-tonne weight.

Maxx Force, an Illinois roller coaster that hits 78 mph in under two seconds, is launched by a blast of what?

Compressed air fires the train to 78 mph in 1.8 seconds, a launch so loud that the park had to add sound barriers after noise complaints from the surrounding town.

A roller coaster's twists can cause motion sickness when the eyes disagree with which other part of the body?

The inner ear tracks rotation with three fluid-filled canals and straight-line surges with tiny calcium carbonate grains; nausea follows when its report clashes with what the eyes see.

Despite the name, the g-force quoted for a roller coaster is technically a measure of which quantity, not a force?

Acceleration is what g-force measures, in multiples of the rate at which a dropped object gains speed on Earth, about 9.8 metres per second every second.

Before a roller coaster even leaves the station, a seated rider is already experiencing a force of how many g?

1 g is simply normal weight: the ground pushes up on everyone with exactly that force, so a 3 g dip makes riders feel three times as heavy.

Roller coaster designers usually cap the force pressing riders down in a dip at about how many g?

4 to 6 g is the usual ceiling, and only for a moment; the limit for forces pushing riders upward is far lower, at about 1.5 to 2 g.

G-LOC, a hazard for fighter pilots and on the most intense roller coasters, is a g-force-induced loss of what?

Consciousness goes when sustained g-forces pull blood toward the feet faster than the heart can send it back up, which is why fighter pilots wear suits that squeeze their legs.

Strong g-forces on a roller coaster can briefly drain the colour from a rider's vision, an effect known as what?

A greyout dims light and colour as blood pressure dips at the eyes; riders can still hear, feel and speak, and one coaster's first turn was rebuilt after its opening season to make them rarer.

Roller coaster fans give which name to the sudden, violent airtime that throws riders against their lap bars?

Ejector airtime is the sharp kind that lifts riders and slams them back down; its gentler, longer-lasting cousin is called floater airtime.

Aerospace doctors name the direction of a g-force, on a rocket or a roller coaster, after which body parts?

Eyeballs in means a shove from behind, as on a launch, and eyeballs out means hard braking; people tolerate the first far better than the second.

Which US Air Force doctor rode a rocket sled to 46.2 g, far beyond the forces of any roller coaster?

John Stapp hit 632 mph on the 1954 run before stopping in little over a second, lived to 89, and is credited with popularising Murphy's law.

The Incredible Hulk Coaster fires its train up a launch hill using 230 electric motors that spin rows of what?

Tires pinch the underside of the train and fling it to 40 mph in two seconds, a launch its designers meant to feel like being shot from a cannon.

The tick-tick-tick of a roller coaster climbing its lift hill is a safety catch riding over which toothed device?

A ratchet lets the catch, known as a dog, slide freely upward but lock against any backward slip, so a train cannot slide backward if the lift stops.