PointBuzz posts maXair physics article

That reads like stereo instructions!

God bless Dave and other physics nuts, but I'm just gonna enjoy it as though it were all just magic.

I am not sure of your calculation for the g's in the normal component when the passenger is at the top, pendulum at 120 degrees. Gravity is acting downward and thus its component normal to the passenger is g*cos(120). The rotation of the gondola is 8rpm but this acceleration is towards the center of curvature of the gondola and thus does not add any to the normal component of acceleration. So the acceleration is -.5g's which is also what the manufacture Huss list on their technical information.

"The rotation of the gondola is 8rpm but this acceleration is towards the center of curvature of the gondola and thus does not add any to the normal component of acceleration."

I dunno, I'm closer to Homey's explanation of "just magic" than I am to the technowizardry of advanced physics since I haven't seen a classroom in 20-some years.....but it sure SEEMS like the acceleration from the spinning gondola is toward the OUTSIDE of the wheel. I know it FEELS much stronger when you manage to catch the outside top edge as the swing downward starts to PUMP....of course, the DIRECTION of the acceleration is key to debating/deciding forces applied...;)