g forces?

what exactly is a g force?
ive been on tons of coasters but never knew what a g force was

'g' refers to gravity. 0 g's is no gravity/ weightlessness; and 3 g's is 3x the force of gravity. When you're going very fast through large looping turns, you'll experience increased g-forces. You will feel 'heavier' than usual, being pushed outward from the coaster or back into your seat.

You normally weigh 1G. Lets say you weigh 100 lbs. If you go through a loop, and there are 3G's, you will weight 300 pounds (only for fractions of a second or so; that isn't dangerous). Positive G's push into your seat, making you feel heavier than you really are.

Negative G's on the other hand pull you out of your seat, creating airtime. At 0 G's, you will just float around in your seat. At -1G you will actually feel a tug trying to pull you out because there will be 100 pounds of lift pressure on your body.

I hope that sort of clarifies it for you. It's kind of hard to explain;).

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Benjamin Jones | Yet another coaster-craving yuppie

"1 G" the standard comes from the force of the earths gravity at Sea Level.

If you weighed 150 at 2 G's you would weigh 300
3 G's 450 and so forth.

At 0 G's you become weightless ...Ie you do not weigh anything.

At negative G's you actually will begin to move away from the coaster seat. This is refered to as Airtime.

G's are not exactly what happens on a coaster it has to do with momentum and potential energy vs the path that the coaster train will take due to the track.

G's are just away to measure those effects and is comonly used to explain those forces in a standard measurement instead of saying that that coaster displaces you in your seat at a force of 1000 ft/lbs.

while Gs are part of the fun of a ride, they can also be quite dangerous. Prolonged exposure to too many Positive Gs (about 5+) can cause a blackout, where not enough blood is going to the brain. The blood is getting drawn towards your feet. Some people will actually black out on soem rides due to this.

Whereas too man Positive Gs are bad, so can too many Negative Gs. If you aren't restarined correctly, Negative Gs can lift you right out of the car.

also, Negative Gs can also cause problems. Prolonged exposure to high Negative Gs (2+) can cause a Redout, where too much blood goes to the brain. Your vision will actually turn red! So the most negative Gs you will encounter will be under 2.

Too many Positive Gs (7 or above) Are fatal. If you hit this many Gs, it will crush every bone in your body, you will have bruises all over your skin and internal organs, your retinas will detach, you will bleed profusely from your ears, and finally, it will kill you. So most Gs are 6 or under. Hope this helps! :)

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Millennium Force: The Future's Riding On It

That last one really painted a lovely picture in my mind! lol!

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It's my Birthday! Somebody SPANK me!

I myself have problems with g's. I hope that new rides in the future will not pull more than today's because I start to gray out on tight loops, turns, etc. The coaster that has done it the worse was probably Batman the Ride! Those loops are tiny!

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It's my Birthday! Somebody SPANK me!

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MillenniumForce04 said:
"Too many Positive Gs (7 or above) Are fatal"

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Accually, I think it's around 10, and I doubt it's as grusome as you say it is. Pilots do more than 10 Gs sometimes (with gravity suits) so they are protected, but thier eyes are just as vulerable. I doubt anything would detach from your eye.

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Intamin: Steel gifts from the gods.
CCI: Wooden gifts from the gods.

Remember, they have special suits to counteract the Gs...a average coaster rider is wearing his or her everyday clothes.

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Millennium Force: The Future's Riding On It