Coaster Myths and Misconceptions

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MilleniumForce6279 said:

Number 4, no matter if the seats are padded, the G's are sill the same, it is whether you feel them as much.

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Well, that's not entirely true. Presumably a seat that gives a little (padded) has more distance to supply force to counteract the momentum of your butt landing on the seat
than one that is just plain hard.

If you jump on a trampoline, the max force exerted on your body to stop you is a lot less than the max force exerted on you if you jump on the ground.
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph

"When you ride Batman the Ride after it has rained, it goes twice as fast as usual!! I rode it one time right after it rained and it usually goes like 50mph, but it almost broke 100!!" .................interesting.

I was in line for B:KF at SFWoA and I met this guy from San Diego who told me "If you ride Hulk at IOA more than three times straight, you'll screw up your equilibrium." Don't know if it's true because I haven't been to IOA yet, just thought it was a bit intriguing.

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Fear, not the distance from which you fall, however, the velocity with which you hit the ground.

In response to the Hulk and screwing up your equilibrium comment: That's possible... for some people.

Personal experience with that... While my wife did not ride Hulk, she did ride Kraken at Sea World. She rode it two or three times but then had to stop because of dizziness and nauseau caused by her equilibrium being off. On the other hand I had no problem with 6 times in a row (only stopping because we ran out of time). Worst case... Sand Storm (a strange flat ride) at BGT. My wife had not problem with 2 rides on Montu and 1 one on each side of Gwasi... but on that flat ride and her equilibrium, it basically did her in for the rest of the day. Another example... when I was a kid, my father couldn't even ride the carrousel when we went to parks... sudden dizziness and nausea all because of equilibrium.

It varies by individual. Most people don't have that great of a problem with it... some do.

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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"

1 They tore down the Bat at PKI because someone got decapitated.

2 They took out the 3rd loop on Mindbender (There never was a 3rd vertical loop)

3 I swear this is a real myth I heard once when I was younger White Lightning at Carowinds couldn't be placed facing the other way, because if it was, then when Thunder Roads trains reached the top of the lift they would leave the track and keep going up.

4 I hear this from the idiot I work with every time I show him a coaster picture "I can't believe no one has ever been hurt on that"

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JOHN
RCT INSOMNIACS
KIMBERLY LAKE INC.

Adventure Express goes upside-down.

kRaXLeRidAh said:
"I don't trust those wood ones, they don't look safe."

I really hate those kind of comments. The bad thing is that I hear it all the time.

It's funny you mention that, because the people I hear say that aren't in the GP, but structural engineers who've done a little work in coaster design...

"Enthusiasts are easy to please and never complain about insignificant things such as paint color and ride names."

^ Not to mention, superiour in every way to this so called "GP" out there..

I hear this and get asked about it all the time "The Blue Streak is going to fall down" of course I am talking atbout the one at CLP. It is false.

At Knott's one time a young kid and his dad were next to me in line on the Ghostrider. The kid was so afraid he was crying and said he didn't want to ride because it looked too fast. His dad told him not to be afraid because all steel coasters are faster than all wooden coasters and that he would be fine since he had already ridden the Sierra Sidewinder.

"So why don't you like Son Of Beast or Vortex? Those are the best and newest at King's Island!"

"Where is Holiday World? No, there is no Santa Claus, IN...come on!"

"Dude, I swear Dragster is 1000 feet high! My friend told me!"

"People get killed on rollercoasters all the time. Didn't you see the news?"

"Where is Kennywood?"

My favorite....

"Why don't they add another train on Face/Off?"

On Tatsu, when the train pulled back into position at the start of the ride, a woman on the ride started screaming and said that she didn't know that was going to happen. I wonder what she had been paying attention to while she was in line.

CoasterqueenTRN, that last one is hysterical. I've heard the same thing on Deja Vu.

Of course, we ALL know the most infamous Myths & miscncept:

MANGUM IS SINKING!!!! :)

The Bat (KI) was removed because someone was beheaded.

Speaking of KI, I remember when I was a kid in the seventies, hearing this one. When they were testing the Racer, so the story went, they ran the trains through empty with no trouble -- but then when they put a human test rider on, he came back decapitated. Someone had left a 2 x 4 laying across the handrails. I half believed that one for years.

Coasters don't kill people! Impacts do...

Wow, how did they get mice to grow THAT big? (A kid looking at a wild mouse ride when i was growing up.)

At Geauga Lake: 'does the Sky Coaster use a LIM launch of a chain?'

If you put your arms up you will fall out of the train. I think some parents just say that because they don't want their young kids to put their arms up but I still find it funny whenever I hear it. At least my parents never said that to me. Can you imagine the millions of deaths there would be at parks every year if that were true.

kRaXLeRidAh said:
"I don't trust those wood ones, they don't look safe."

I really hate those kind of comments. The bad thing is that I hear it all the time.

That's mine too! "I'm not riding 'insert name of fairly old wooden coaster" it's made of wood and that stuff doesn't hold up!" So the park will just keep running it until it falls over!

Another one is a woman in line insisted that Ghost Rider goes back to the 1930s, was about to fall down and got angry when I told her it was about 10 years old. "It's called GHOST rider becuase people have died on it and their GHOSTS haunt it! She went on to explain that her mom claimed to have ridden in child and heard of all the deaths. This wasn't someone that was trying to spin stories about a ride in line to scare people but really belived it and or was making things up as they went along!

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Gee, maybe we should just get "Mythbusters" to do a show dedicated to amusment park rides and roller coasters. I'd like to see what kind of funny stuff they'd do.

For an example:

"Are you more likely to hurl on an empty stomach, or a full stomach?"