Roller Coasters
Roller coasters are some of the most thrilling rides you can go on. Roller coasters are driven almost entirely by basic inertial, gravitational and centripetal forces, all manipulated in the service of a great ride. Amusement parks keep upping the ante, building faster and more complex roller coasters, but the fundamental principles at work remain the same. In this essay I will tell you the history of the roller coaster, roller coaster physics, roller coaster components, roller coaster forces, roller coasters and its body, and famous roller coaster from around the world.
Roller Coasters have a long history. The ancestor of the modern roller coaster is the ice slides. Ice slides were popular in Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ice slides were a simple construction. They were a long, steep wooden slide covered in ice. Riders climbed to the top of the slide, and at the top, they climbed into sleds and slid down the slope. At the end of the slide, riders would crash-land in a sand pile. Sometime in the 1800’s the French created the rolling carts that we use today. 1817 was a big day in history for roller coasters. In France, Russes a Belleville was built. The Russes a Belleville was the first roller coaster where the train was attached to the track. The French kept expanding this idea, coming up with more complex track layouts, with multiple cars and all sorts of twists and turns. The first roller coaster in America was the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in Pennsylvania. Over the next 30 years, attractions like this become more popular. In 1920’s the roller coaster was a big business. During the Great Depression and World War II, roller-coaster production declined. In the 1970’s-1980’s roller coasters had another boom. (The first boom was in 1920.) In the 1990s and 2000s, another boom took place. This time, however, faster, taller and more twisted rides are popping up in amusement parks around the world
The initial hill of a roller coaster is there to build...
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