Engineer Explains Every Roller Coaster For Every Thrill | A World of Difference | WIRED

[Music] here are a bunch of different kinds of roller coasters this one is metal this one is wood here's a wild mouse a launched coaster there are a lot of different kinds of roller coasters but they all have a few things in the comments when you're designing a ride you have to draw people into the ride you want people to look at that ride and say i got to give that a try this is one of the engineers who make these roller coasters i'm corey keeper and i'm an engineer and partner at the gravity group and these amusement rides like the ones behind me that's my specialty can you explain what a roller coaster engineer does i will do some of the structural engineering and the mechanical engineering for the ride so there might be an amusement park that comes and they say this is the plot of land that we have this is the budget that we're thinking what kind of ride can you give us my job would be to say yeah i can fit something in that spot and it would be really cool if i could use this hill over here to add a terrain aspect to the ride where i actually use some of the ground features or if there are buildings or other rides that i could interact with i try to take all of that into consideration when we're designing a ride so why is it that there are so many different types of roller coasters so when we design a roller coaster we're trying to to take something that's very much driven by the same codes that would be used to design a building and we're working with those to create something that gives you the illusion that it's daring and adventurous but at the same time it's all very controlled that's the heart of what we do okay what are all the factors you have to consider when building a roller coaster when we design a roller coaster for a park the backbone of everything we do follows safety standards that can vary depending on the country here in america we might have the astm standards that we follow europe has their own standards china has their own standards so we have to balance what is best for the rider in terms of what are the safe limits but at the same time we're also making it exciting we're making it fun okay so what do all these roller coasters have in common the first thing is they all have a car and on these cars you have a set of different wheels you have a top wheel or a road wheel the second wheel would be called a side wheel sometimes they're on the outside of the tracks other times they're on the inside of the tracks and that wheel is used as you're going around a turn when you're going over a hill if you just had those two wheels your roller coaster would fly off the track so there's a wheel on the underside of the track called an up stop or an uplift wheel the track can be made of wood or it can be made of steel in between the rails there's something called a cross tie and that's something that is holding the distance between these rails constant then we have supports if you have a steel roller coaster you have relatively few supports and large spans if you have a wooden roller coaster the spans are tighter and you have more of a traditional lattice or trust structure other similarities they all have a breaking system which consists of a long fin that runs through a pinch break where you might have some differing metal that would run through a magnet and actually slow the train using a magnetic force that's a more comfortable more gradual way to bring your ride to a stop what forces do you have to take into account when designing a roller coaster primarily a roller coaster is made up of vertical g-forces horizontal g-forces that's the side to side and the longitudinal or a front to back g-forces so one g that's just me right now i'm sitting here i'm one g however as i'm going over the hill that crest you might feel uh what's called the air time and air time those are the negative g-forces that's where i feel like i could be launched out of my seat and then when you hit the valley you're pushed into your seat and that's a positive vertical g-force we're putting a lot of twists and turns into our rides as well we call that banking we're controlling the horizontal g-forces or the side-to-side forces and so sometimes you might just bank at 45 degrees you know and there might be other times where we try to be extreme and you you have what are called over banked turns and that's something where we go beyond 90 degrees that's another tool and so now you can start combining some elements a little bit and so you might have a certain vertical g-force and horizontal g-force and you can arrange them in such a way that eventually you can do an inversion and depending on the g-forces that you have as you're going through this inversion you can have something where you feel like you're floating and we would call that like a zero g roll so what are all the different types of roller coasters out there so when we're talking about a ride and we're calling it a wooden roller coaster or a steel roller coaster in general what we're talking about is what is the primary track material and a wooden roller coaster it's all about the stack we have these plies of wood stacked on top of each other that we then put steel rails on with wooden roller coasters there were certain layouts like there'd be out and back roller coasters where you went out and came back or there'd be twisters or a cyclone style roller coaster like in coney island the cyclone is a wooden roller coaster it's one of the oldest rides still operating in the united states it was built in 1927 i believe and that's a compact ride it has a very tight footprint just kind of goes back and around on itself multiple times you know it has the drops it has some of the turns and it's just a rollicking fun ride to many people it just represents what a nostalgic wooden roller coaster is and is meant to be you mentioned an out and back coaster what is that an out and back roller coaster is all about air time and one of the best out and back roller coasters that i can think of is one called the voyage and it's at a park called holiday world in indiana and the voyage is the second largest wooden roller coaster in the world and you start in one section of the park and then you just go out into the woods and what's really iconic about this ride is it has three hills the first three hills on the ride are all over a hundred feet so you have these drops one after another 100 feet or more and so that really gives you the air time and the voyage when it was designed the goal was to make an out and back roller coaster that had more air time than any other ride in the world that's probably the most iconic version of an out and back the most nostalgic out and back that i think of is probably the blue streak at cedar point it's just a classic small wooden roller coaster it has kind of the white structure hearkening back to the coney island cyclone as white [Music] what other materials are roller coasters made from certainly when you look at an amusement park there are a lot of steel roller coasters they kind of harken back to actually disneyland the modern horn was actually the first tubular steel roller coaster and that was aero development they worked with disney to create this ride and from there the roller coaster just continued to evolve and so when cedar point built the magnum in 1989 they broke the barrier you know of what was really common what was knowledge and it started a category of rides called the hyper coaster any roller coaster that breaks like the 200 foot mark is considered a hyper coaster and the magnum started the big arms race the big coaster war that we have today and from there you know as our technology has improved as different manufacturers have evolved with new ride styles we've gone from the hyper coaster which was 200 feet into a new category called the giga coaster a giga coaster is now a ride that is in the 300 foot range you have fury 325 or intimidator 305 kings island recently added orion which is also a giga coaster has that drop that's 300 feet so as people thirst for more and more and something that's more and more thrilling the hyper coaster has become more of a common roller coaster and then the giga coasters i think there are only about maybe 12 of them on the planet right now and then you have coasters that are even beyond that you have these strata coasters now king dakot at six flags great adventure in new jersey is 456 feet tall and these become highly thrilling rides that are intimidating to people but they're also iconic but as you go taller and taller with a ride you're changing that bigger potential energy into more kinetic energy and that that in turn means that you have to be concerned about the additional speed and the duration of some of these g-forces not only on your body but the track as well the impact factors on these rides forces manufacturers to look at more material more steel the the foundations are bigger and so the expense of these rides just exponentially increases as well [Music] okay what other types of roller coasters are there when a park has a lot of hills or terrain often as a ride designer like we want to take advantage of that if there's a valley that you can drive your roller coaster into you want to do that and so on a wooden roller coaster you especially have that advantage where you can make your path follow this terrain we can gather information about the hillside trees rock formations and the great thing about that is you make a ride that's very efficient because there's maybe less structure that you have to build you don't necessarily have to build a lift hill super high if you can take advantage of building some of that lift on the hillside and then if you can drop into that valley you have a bigger drop and increase speed and it can just add to the sensation sometimes at the end of a ride if you're up on one elevation and you can just drop off the hill into the valley it just adds so much speed to the ride typically rides as you go on they feel like they're getting a little bit slower and slower the hills have to get smaller but if you have terrain you can go into that valley toward the end of the ride and suddenly have a 50-foot drop that maybe you couldn't have had otherwise and in many ways what i love about them is they're they're kind of like high-speed nature trails you know you have the trees or rock formations that you're just whipping past you super fast it just gives you that thrill that you're going maybe a little bit faster than you really are what's the best example of a terrain coaster the beast here at kings island it's probably the most iconic of the terrain roller coasters it also is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world and it's been the longest wooden roller coaster for a long time i mean it's over 40 years old the wild mouse it's just a classic style ride it can be made out of steel or they can be made out of wood when i think about a wild mouse the thing that's most iconic about them is the hairpin turn so you go up a lift hill and then you do a lot of zigzags but when you're doing these zigzags they're super tight i mean they might be like a 10 12 foot radius or even smaller and you typically have maybe one or two cars maximum that make up the length of the train so when you're making these sharp turns that are unbanked there's a high lateral force or a horizontal g-force that you experience another thing is there's not structure underneath you so you go out way over and it's just straight down and you're in this tight car and you have a feeling like is this safe should i be doing this and so it's those turns those tight turns on the wild mouse that really make it special one of my favorite wild mice is uh like the villa moose at grunerland and the reason i love that ride is uh it's it's a very large wild mouse and it's also in and around all of these other rides in the park as well and that just adds to the thrill it invites the guests that are walking through the park into that ride experience [Music] what's a good introductory roller coaster mine train coasters in general are a free-form ride there's not a set rule that they have to follow but the trains they're these boxy trains with a relatively simple chassis or carriage or wheel system to give it that rickety look and there's essentially a ride that gives you that out of control feeling like indiana jones or something where there are tracks all over the place it wasn't necessarily about speed it wasn't necessarily about the height it was about being out of control and that's what mine trains were great for is just introducing your guests to that first roller coaster [Music] experience okay what can you tell me about launched roller coasters you know that you're on a launch roller coaster if you're sitting in the station and then like five seconds later you're going through an inversion or or something at uh like 70 or 80 miles per hour like crazy what we're doing on a launch roller coaster is we're using some external means like a linear synchronous motor a fancy way of saying like these electromagnets that just in a line they just shoot you out super fast or a flywheel launch or a hydraulic launch where they're focusing the energy of something into a device that maybe propels you quickly using like a cable or something but in general you don't have to have that lift hill in front of you you could be flat on the ground and just go zero to 60 like no one's business what's a good example the incredi coaster is an example of a launch roller coaster that one they wanted it to look like a traditional roller coaster so there's some uphill portion to the launch other launch roller coasters there's like thunderbird at holiday world which is a winged coaster in addition to being a launch roller coaster [Music] okay what other elements are roller coaster engineers playing with aside from just the configuration of the ride in terms of the path the other thing that we can play with as a ride designer is the configuration of how guests are seated on the ride instead of being a traditional car where you're just sitting there are cars where you are standing such as green lantern there are rides where you're flying and you're on your belly going through the elements there are other roller coasters where instead of sitting facing forward i might have a car or two where i'm sitting backwards sometimes parks opt to take a ride and run it backwards batman the ride and many six flags parks they've opted to run their batman rides backwards during certain seasons another thing that we can do with the roller coaster is we can put you under the track so instead of riding in a car that's directly above the track now we're below the track and there were suspended roller coasters like the big bad wolf at busch gardens in williamsburg where you're on this cart below the track and as you go around the curves the car actually kind of swings out and swings back a more modern version of a ride where you ride below the tracks is something called an inverted roller coaster and the great thing about an inverted roller coaster you have your legs they're just dangling freely on the ride and that just adds a completely different sensation when you're going through a valley and you go down that that drop and you hit the bottom suddenly you know like your feet weigh uh you know four or five times what they're used to and you can feel that monster it's being built at grunerland this year in sweden and that's one where it's an inverted roller coaster and they have so many buildings and other rides that are so close together at this park you're gonna feel like you're going to hit something with your foot almost at alton towers they had a ride called nemesis that they built which is an inverted roller coaster and there are height limits at some parks and you can't build a rod that's very tall so nemesis what they did is they cleverly built these canyons or gorges that the ride dives into it just adds so much to the ride experience on a wing coaster what you do is you have the track in the center but you're outside of the track so when you're riding this ride you don't necessarily see the track in front of you as much as you know you see this this other land beside you thunderbird at holiday world is a great example of that tron's motorbike coaster at shanghai disneyland is an example of something where i'm riding this ride and it's as though i'm on the light cycle from tron and so the position that i'm riding this roller coaster is completely different by mixing up the configuration of how you're seating it just adds a whole new dimension to the ride any other types yeah the 40 coaster which is a kind of abbreviation for the fourth dimension roller coaster is just something where they were trying to take the standard roller coaster and add another element to it what they did is they took a winged roller coaster so i'm off the side of the track but i'm free to spin upside down while i'm on this ride and so you have a crazy course but at the same time you're spinning out of control around and around and when you're spinning freely like that every ride is different [Music] so what new kinds of roller coasters are engineers envisioning yeah i mean i think um what we're seeing in the amusement industry is just a blend of technology with rides you know certainly i think that you can add vr or augmented reality to rides there are some roller coasters that have already tried the the virtual reality you know that's certainly a possibility and i think that you know there's a further blending of just fine-tuning the technology how we play with the launches and the storytelling at hagrid's motorbike adventure you know they added extensive theming and there's sort of a story along with the the roller coaster experience other things that you you can look for and i think that what we're trying to do is we're trying to take modern technology and apply it to something that traditionally has been very handcrafted we're trying to take something that is a 100 year old technology and make something new out of it to reinvent it and that's that's the goal of the whole industry you know this steel tubular track ride how can i reinvent it how can i what else can i do and i mean i could tell you some stuff right now but uh i'd get in trouble

Channel: WIRED

Views: 476,143

Rating: 4.950604 out of 5

Keywords: rollercoaster, rollercoaster park, rollercoasters, roller coasters, roller coasters explained, roller coater designs, roller coaster kingda ka, launch roller coaster, loop roller coaster, wood roller coaster, steel roller coaster, wild mouse roller coaster, terrain roller coaster, every type of roller coaster, roller coater thrill, roller coaster creator, roller coaster engineer, roller coaster wired, wired roller coaster, roller coaster types, roller coaster explained, wired

Id: Sa5k5cvEJpc

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/modsarefascists42]

Something to remember, those height warnings are fucking seriousv and are there for a reason.

When I was a kid I was dying to ride the Batman rollercoaster at 6 flags, but I was way too short, same the next year. At the next year no one was checking at the height so my mom said just go on in it's fine..... Once we went down the first main fall and then hit a hard turn I felt my entire top half of my body slide right out of the hanging chair. I flipped out and wrapped my arm around the chair holder thingy and held onto my wrapped around arm for dear life. I nearly got slung out of the damn thing at like 100'up, I noticed once I was on the ground that I'd have basically been flung right out onto the parking lot if I hadn't held on tight enough.

[u/BillyLK]

Kingda Ka making me all sorts of lightheaded as a teenager. Good memories.

[u/HayleyTheLesbJesus]

This video hit different if you played roller coaster tycoon as a kid.

[u/painted917]

The illusion of fear.

[u/thefootisconstant]

Thanks for posting this! Now I'm craving more thrill ride science.

[u/purvel]

Cool video! But man, that Topher Grace is much older than I thought!

[u/Zeestars]

Was this learnt due to a rabbit hole after seeing the great coaster debate of 2021 in the sub with the post about the pedal powered coaster in Japan?