There’s this coaster in Hershey Park Pennsylvania,
called the Sooperdooperlooper. On it, you come around this bend that’s
full of trees blocking your view and before you know it
you’re hurtling down the track at 45 miles per hour toward
a thrilling 75 foot loop. According to Hershey's website, it’s the “first-ever looping roller coaster
on the east coast”. But the good people at the Hershey company
have that wrong. Because about 75 years before the Sooperdooperlooper, Coney Island — in my hometown of New York —
was home to the first two looping coasters in America. Unlike the Sooperdooperlooper, which has been
around for almost 50 years, these early looping coasters didn’t even
last a decade. Because, it turns out, loops shouldn’t be
made like this. Looping roller coasters got their start in
Europe as early as 1842. Back then, they were called centrifugal railways They... weren’t super popular or successful. They tried a few more in Europe, as we understand
it, these were short lived and more a novelty. That’s Randy Geisler, former president and
current member of the historical committee for
American Coaster Enthusiasts. I've loved roller coasters my entire life. The movements, the speed, and just the world
whipping by you in every direction. People in the 1800s didn't have the same fondness
for looping coasters. And that didn’t change much when America
built its first looping roller coaster in 1895: Coney Island’s Flip Flap Railway. That’s because these coasters had a few
major problems. The biggest one being, they made the loops
circular. In physics, we love perfect circles. It's an easy shape. But from a human experience point of view,
it is a nightmare. That’s Matt Anderson. I’m a physics professor at
San Diego State University. To make it all the way around
the Flip Flap’s circular loop cars needed to move really, really fast
while changing directions. The coaster itself is trying to push you up
into a new direction. Your head, your spine, everything else wants
to keep going in a straight line. But the coaster is saying, no, you gotta curve
into this arc. Changing directions so rapidly causes a spike
in G forces/ You've gone from one G instantly
to 12 or 14 Gs. That’s a big problem. 6Gs is really the most a human body can handle
on a rollercoaster and only for about a second. At that force... Literally, all the blood is just being pulled
out of your head and you will pass out. You can see how wild the G-forces are in this
looping-coaster-simulation chart created by George Sidebotham, a mechanical
engineering professor at the Cooper Union. Because of our chat, he became so obsessed
with the circular loop problem that he made a bunch of looping-coaster-simulation
charts. This line represents a circular loop like
the Flip Flap's. After jumping from 1 to 14 Gs, it would decrease
as you reached the top of the loop then ramp all the way up again to 14 at the
bottom, and then back to 1 as the coaster
leaves the curve. Passengers were completely rattled. The Flip Flap, being made mostly of wood,
didn’t help either. Wood is stretchy and compress-y. You can see the circle moving as the cart
goes around. It's stressing it this way and then it's stressing
it that way. It just looks like an engineering catastrophe
about to happen. The next looping coaster built on Coney Island,
the Loop the Loop, Was crafted to avoid all those issues. It was made entirely out of steel, which offered
more stability. And the circle was switched to more of an
upside down teardrop shape. Squeezing the sides in helped ease the transition
into and out of the curvature reducing the G forces and creating a
smoother, less body-damaging ride. But still, they had the capacity problem. Neither the Flip Flap or the Loop the Loop
could support more than a few riders at a time because the loops were small, and so
the cars had to be small, too. Most of the cars, they seated 4 people And pretty much you could only send people
about once every 5 minutes. They just couldn't make enough money. There were more people that would watch
than ride. The Flip Flap lasted 7 years,
the Loop the Loop lasted 9. And all other looping coasters
around the world shut down shortly after. It seemed like the end of the track for loops. That is... until something new came along. In 1959, Disney unveiled the Matterhorn. It didn’t have a loop but it was the very
first tubular steel coaster. Unlike regular steel which was solid throughout, tubular steel was hollow in the middle,
making it lighter-weight, and easier to bend into smooth arcs and curves. Unlike wood, tubular steel could support heavy
weight, and more dynamic movement. And in 1976, Six Flags Magic Mountain
debuted the first modern vertical looping coaster,
made with tubular steel. The Great American Revolution squeezed the
loop even more than the Loop the Loop creating what’s known as a “clothoid loop". It gets smaller and smaller as you get to
the top to try and even out the G forces. And then it does exact opposite as it comes
back down. With clothoid loop-shaped coasters, designers
could distribute the G’s more evenly and decide more precisely how many Gs to hit... about 4.9 in the case of the Great American
Revolution. A much smoother experience compared to the
Flip Flap's uneven G force spikes from 1 to 14 to 9 to 1. This clothoid loop — crafted using strong
and easy-to-bend tubular steel, and built 113 feet high meant that the Great American Revolution
could support 20 riders at g forces that feel exhilarating instead
of harmful. And since then loops have exploded in popularity. Double loops! Crazy loops! And that Sooperdooperlooper
in Hershey Park which, by the way, can proudly claim that it’s the first modern looping roller coaster
on the east coast.
TL;dw circular loops have a massive wall of g force. Clothoid loops have a smooth transition.
Vox videos are usually great!! I’ve gotten lost on their YT channel numerous times.