Pilgrims Plunge testing starts today

Hi Paula. I was just wondering what kind of things can be or will be done to help increase the splash?

I'm thinking a nice 200 or so pounds of ballast in the bottom front of the boat would help weight the boat down, as well as forcing a little more of a "nose-dive" action. Honestly, almost all of the best solutions can be found on the signage surrounding KW's flume ride... ;)

Hopefully they can figure something out because I was at Kings Island today and Diamondback seems to have a much larger splash!

What does Diamnodback's splash have to do with PP's splash?

Maybe he's just comparing a ride that is designed around it's ultimate outcome, The Splash, as is the case with Pilgrim's Plunge, to Diamondbacks extra added feature, that should just be an afterthought. Where one feature should WOW! you, and the other should make you think, eh...That's kinda cool.

Coasterphan is right I was just comparing the two rides based on one feature "the splash" that was designed into the ride. Granted I have only seen PP splash on a video, when I saw Diamondbacks splash in person it seemed to be much bigger. This fact surprised me because one would think a water ride dropping from such a high height as PP does would cause a much larger splash than a rollercoaster. I came away from Diamondback thinking wow and from the PP video thinking the splash was lame.

Excuse me for trying to break out the physics, as I'm a little rusty in that department. However, it's the best way to explain why Diamondback has a bigger splash than Pilgrims Plunge.

I'm making a couple of assumptions here:
1) I'm estimating that Diamondback is going about 35 mph in the splashdown. This may or may not be a conservative guess.
2) Given a quick stop at Google, I am guessing that the average weight of a rider is about 180 pounds, assuming that all the riders are adults.

Momentum, if I remember correctly, is a description of an object's mass in relation to its direction of movement. The greater the momentum, the greater the ability of the ride to push out the water it comes in contact with. Momentum is defined as being the product of mass and velocity. For the sake of simplicity, and because we don't know this number, I'm ignoring the weight of the boat/train and only factoring in the mass of the riders.

Diamondback has 32 riders, each about 180 pounds, traveling at about 35mph (15.6 m/s). Therefore, the momentum of the train (minus the train itself) is (32 * 180lb) * 15.6 m/s, or 89,856 lb*m/s.

Pilgrims Plunge: (8 riders * 180lb) * 22.35 m/s, or 32,184 lb*m/s.

As you can see, even though the Pilgrims Plunge boat is traveling significantly faster than the Diamondback train, the greater amount of riders on Diamondback means that it has a greater momentum when entering the splash, and therefore can push up a lot more water.

Given that I wasn't able to factor in the weight of the trains, these numbers really don't mean anything by themselves; however, it still illustrates that the Diambondback train enters the splash with a momentum almost 3 times larger than that of the Pilgrims Plunge boat.

In this case the splash has way more to do with the way the vehicle interacts with the water than the momentum.

If PP had little scoops designed to create a spray, it could generate a similar splash. The real issue is that PP spends most of it's high velocity time skimming over the water instead of scooping it.

I was thinking that at first, but the Pilgrims Plunge boat displaces nowhere near the amount of water that the Diamondback train does. Considering that water is the primary braking mechanism on the ride (the skimming part at the beginning doesn't slow the boat down much), there would have to be a larger splash or wave in order to suggest that the boat has the same ability to move water as Diamondback does.

Diamondback = apples
Pilgrims Plunge = oranges

Comparing apples
To oranges is my thing.
Apples are better.

Mamoosh said:
Diamondback = apples
Pilgrims Plunge = oranges

Then I guess the point is an apple (not supposed to be real juicy and wet) makes a bigger splash than then orange (a fruit known for it's juiciness) and that's kind of an interesting thing. :) ;)

You so get me, Gonch ;)

Off the top of my head I can think of 3, Splash Mountain (x2) and Daredevil Falls @ DW.

All of the Big Thunder coasters at the various Disney parks have a faux splash. Frontier City's Wildcat woodie has/used to have a faux splashdown.

When I worked at JP River Adventure at IOA, more than 1 maintenance employee told me that the ride had an artificial splash. I don't believe them though.

Diamondback has 32 riders, each about 180 pounds, traveling at about 35mph (15.6 m/s). Therefore, the momentum of the train (minus the train itself) is (32 * 180lb) * 15.6 m/s, or 89,856 lb*m/s.

Pilgrims Plunge: (8 riders * 180lb) * 22.35 m/s, or 32,184 lb*m/s.

I get what you're doing, but that right there makes my engineering senses hurt in so many ways that I can't even describe. kg*m/s or slug*ft/s - don't mix the two or "bad things" will happen. And I know this is completely irrelevant, but I just felt a need to say that.

I would love to see the ride incorporate an artificial splash...this way, riders could still experience the unique sensation of gliding on top of the water, all the while being surrounded by a huge wall of water (that would also soak spectators...as originally planned).

LostKause said:
When I worked at JP River Adventure at IOA, more than 1 maintenance employee told me that the ride had an artificial splash. I don't believe them though.

Why not? The water spraying vents on the back are conceptually the same as those found on Diamondback, only about four times the size.

I understood them to mean that it was like Manta, with jets under the water. Maybe they meant scoops like on diamondback, and I misunderstood.