Roller Coaster Physics iPhone App

I was on Twitter at Cedar Point this weekend when someone recommended this iPhone app to me.

Roller Coaster Physics

You start the app and put the phone in your pocket and it measures the g-forces during the ride. Not sure how accurate it is, but it showed me doing 4.01gs and 0.001 in Millennium's back seat and around 3.05 in Magnum's back seat. I forgot about it on the other rides. :(

Pretty neat.

That is neat. However, I think an iPhone may be too valuable of a 'loose article' to most who would intend on using this application.

Remember, the park is not responsible for any lost belongings, no matter how expensive they may be. ;-)

It stays secure in my jeans this time of year!

Very cool, just downloaded it. For anyone who owns an iphone and hasn't "pwned" it I strongly suggest you do so (horizontal texting ftw!). Google iphonedevteam blog if you're interested in doing that, it's totally safe for the phone.

I hope someone makes an iPhone copy of those roller coaster java games where you have to play brakeman or fly off the hills.

eightdotthree said:
It stays secure in my jeans this time of year!

This is what happens when you walk in in the middle of a conversation.

RatherGoodBear said:

eightdotthree said:
It stays secure in my jeans this time of year!

This is what happens when you walk in in the middle of a conversation.

Hibernation?

Cool and all, but if you were actually on a ride I think you'd get way too much noise at the current resolution.

This past Friday I tried it on Magnum, Top Thrill Dragster, Iron Dragon, Millennium Force, and Skyhawk; while I certainly wouldn't label any of it exceptionally accurate, the trends easily correlated with periods of airtime, positive g-forces, and rapid acceleration and braking. Yes there is noise and some periodic outliers in the data, but with some smoothing algorithms the g-force curves become quite readable. While it's not going to put GMH out of business, for the rest of us it's pretty fun.

-Jeff

It sounds like an interesting use of the iPhone tech. I wonder if somebody will do the same to measure the perforjmance of you car in a similar app?

Hopman, they actually have been using Wiimotes to measure acceleration in cars. Pretty cool stuff really.

Hopman, they do have an app like that. It measures acceleration, deceleration etc. Not sure of the name but I have run across it a few times in the app store.

when i follow the app link... it says that It's no longer available for the US app store... where r u guys from?

This isnt text messaging bud. There isnt a 200 character limit here. Feel free to type out all of your posts. You will get more favorable responses.

Im just saying.

I got this app about a year ago. It's kind of neat, but I haven't really gotten much use out of it. It is kind of fun though to get a g-force readout sent to you from one of your coaster dork friends who is out riding a coaster you wish you were on. *cough* Frissbeking *cough*. ;)

Hopman said:
It sounds like an interesting use of the iPhone tech. I wonder if somebody will do the same to measure the perforjmance of you car in a similar app?

There's a dynamometer app for the iPhone already, called Dynolicious. Supposed to be pretty darn accurate.