Do you know that exciting feeling when your
stomach is right by your brain and your world flips upside down, and you scream with joy
and want more? If you answered yes, you clearly like baby
showers! Ah the screams of joy when they see the little
pink sweater you knitted them. Oh wait a minute – this is about roller
coasters! Okay -- we’ll do baby showers some other
time! Right now, you’re about to upgrade from
roller coaster fan to expert. Counting down from: 9. Some roller coaster tracks are filled with
sand Every company designing roller coasters has
their own unique style, and rides across the world and even within one country can be really
different in design. One thing is universal though: there will
always be a track and high-speed roller coaster trains moving on it. And, those huge entertainment monsters make
crazy loud sounds. Roller coaster fans will agree even those
sounds vary from ride to ride as a part of their individual style. It has to do with the design of the track,
and among the huge variety box beam design makes the loudest sound you won’t confuse
with anything else. This type of track was designed by Bolliger
& Mabillard company, or B&M as it’s usually abbreviated. So a box beam track has a spine of steel that
is made of hollow rectangular cross-section. There are fin plates out of steel that keep
the two rails made of circular steel tubes together. Those fin plates are set apart at regular
intervals. When trains move on the rails at impressive
speeds, the track gets the vibrations and they are the reason we hear that loud noise. The box beams only make the sound louder because
of their size and shape. And even though the sound of B&M roller coasters
is basically its signature, it can at times cause some trouble. For example, it gave some major inconvenience
to people living across the road from Canada’ Wonderland, a theme park in Ontario. It opened in the 1980’s in the midst of
farmland, but a few years later that farmland became a residential area. It was causing tolerable discomfort first,
but then things got really out of hand when they opened their tallest roller coaster ever
– Leviathan. Its height is 305 ft (93 m) and the speed
the trains reach is 93 mph (150 km/h). Imagine all the noise it produced! And, to make things worse, it was built right
by the front gate of the park and covered some of the parking lot making it even closer
to people’s homes. When they started complaining, the park management
invited an acoustical consultant and they came up with an idea to reduce the noise this
beast made using something as simple as sand. Now, the obvious solution was to fill the
rails with it, but they realized it would be impossible since they’d have to cut them
open and weld them back. It would have made the ride not as smooth
as it used to be. So, they decided to work with box beams instead. They cut holes into every box beam and blew
sand with an aggregate blower filled with compressed air so that the sand could move
up in a long tube. It must have been a pretty tiring job since
they had to fill each section of the track one by one because they are all sealed and
you can’t just work with the whole thing instead. In the end, it all worked its magic! The sand dampens the vibrations of the steel
and so the noise levels were reduced significantly. Since this trick was a success, the company
used the same technology on other rides, such as Gatekeeper at Cedar Point in Ohio, and
Yukon Striker at Canada’s Wonderland. This time, they filled the rails with sand
before erecting the coasters and so they didn’t have to open box beams. Who knows, maybe this trick will become a
universal roller coaster design rule in the future. 8. Most roller coasters don't have engines
You’d imagine these powerful high-speed mini trains have powerful little motors, but
it’s wrong. In fact, they move by converting energy! When the train is on top of the track, it
has potential energy, and when it falls because of gravity, it transforms into kinetic energy. And this energy conversion keeps going as
the train goes up and down on the track. Dr Ted Bunn, chair of the physics department
at the University of Richmond in Virginia, compares it to riding a bike. You don’t have to work hard as you move
down the hill, because you’ve already saved enough energy from going up. 7. Their loops aren’t circular Have you ever noticed the loop-the-loop is
never a perfect circle, but looks more like an inverted teardrop? It’s not a design flaw, but a well thought-over
choice. Thanks to it, you’d stay in the sit when
the train goes upside down even without restraints! A loop-the-loop is kind of a centrifuge. When you get to the top of it, gravity is
pulling you toward the ground, but acceleration force is pushing you in the opposite direction. Both of these forces are basically equal,
and so your body becomes almost weightless for that moment when you are at the top. Thanks to the teardrop design, it’s easier
to balance the forces. The train gets fast enough by the top of the
loop and slows down at the sides where the turn isn’t that sharp. So it minimizes the danger of the train going
too quickly where it shouldn’t be. And then you barf. 6. Height restrictions aren’t meaningless
Now that you know laws of Physics will keep you in your seat even without a harness when
you’re hanging upside down, you’d think those height regulations don’t actually
mean a thing. In fact, they do. In case something goes wrong, and emergencies
can happen anywhere, the operators will have to hit the safety break. And the restraints won’t be able to protect
someone below the minimum height requirements. So don’t let kids fake it, if you see they’re
getting on their tiptoes because they really want to be on that ride. 5. Engineers test rides at theme parks a few
times a day Security is everything at a good theme park,
and so engineers test the rides for loose bolts, rust, oil or any other prospective
dangers. And because they can’t test the ride on
actual people, they send sandbags down the track at full speed. 4. There’s a ride with hidden song selections
There’s a famous roller coaster in Universal Studios Florida theme park that’s called
Rip Ride Rockit. It offers its passengers on-ride video from
cameras installed in every row, LED lighting and on-ride music! There are twelve riders in every train and
each of them has two speakers in their headrest. They get to pick one of 30 songs on a small
touch screen on the restraint. However, there are also some secret songs
not every one knows of. If you ever find yourself on that ride and
want to test this trick, just press and hold the ride logo for 10 seconds. Then, you’ll see a 10-digit keypad and you’ll
be able to dial a three-digit code to play the song you like. Ooh, how about Rocketman! 3. The first roller coasters were inspired by
18th century Russian ice slides Russia is famous for its frigid winters, and
so it’s not surprising that local people have enjoyed ice-related activities for centuries. They froze water over wooden constructions
to make ice ramps and slide down them on blocks of wood and ice. In the 18th century, they built whole snow
parks called “Russian Mountains” around the palaces of Saint Petersburg. This type of entertainment was popular with
upper class and even Catherine II herself who had her own mountains by Oranienbaum Palace. La dee da! After Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo,
the Russian soldiers occupied Paris and must have brought the sliding tradition with them. However, it was not cold enough in France
to go down actual ice, so they added wheels to sleds. This is how the great grandfather of modern
roller coasters was born in 1817. 2. The oldest roller coaster that’s still running
is over 100 years old The oldest roller coaster in the world that
you can still ride was opened in Altoona, PA in 1901. It’s called Leap-The-Dips. Hey, you go first. They almost shut it down in 1985, but it was
officially proclaimed a National Historic Landmark 11 years later and continued its
operation. As for the first ever roller coaster in America,
it was opened on June 16, 1884 in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The ride cost one nickel back then, and the
maximum speed of it was six miles per hour. That sounds like nothing compared to today’s
rides, but it was incredibly profitable and made $600 a day, that’s equivalent to $15,000
these days. And, it’s basically the reason roller coasters
became such a craze in the US. 1. The fastest, tallest and longest rides are
all in different countries Kingda Ka is currently the tallest roller
coaster in the world. It is located in Six Flags Great Adventure
in New Jersey and stands proud at 456 feet (139 m) tall. That’s taller than the Statue of Liberty
at 305 feet (93 m) The longest ride in the world is the Steel
Dragon 2000 at Japan’s Nagashima Spa Land. It covers 8133 feet (2479 m). The fastest roller coaster in the world is
Formula Rosso in Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi. It reaches 150 mph (241 km/ in 5 seconds! And then you barf. Now isn’t that impressive? Are you brave enough to go on crazy roller
coaster rides? Confess it in the comment section below! Don't forget to give this video a like, share
it with your friends (your crazy friends!) and click “subscribe” to stay on the Bright
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