1. Free Fall Rides Water Flume Rides
Falling Rides
Free Fall Rides
Water Flume Rides

2. Free-Fall Rides
Free-fall rides are really made up of three distinct parts: the ride to the top, the momentary suspension, and the downward plunge.
In the first part of the ride, force is applied to the car to lift it to the top of the free-fall tower.
The amount of force that must be applied depends on the mass of the car and its passengers. The force is applied by motors, and there is a built-in safety allowance for variations in the mass of the riders.
Free fall rides have a lift mechanism
In a single tower, the car is usually attached by a hook
Multi-tower uses hydraulics (?)

3. Free-Fall Rides
After a brief period in which the riders are suspended in the air, the car suddenly drops and begins to accelerate toward the ground under the influence of the earth's gravity.
The least massive and most massive riders fall to the earth with the same rate of acceleration.

4. Free-Fall Rides
If the riders were allowed to hit the earth at that speed, coming to a sudden stop at the end of the ride, there would certainly be serious injuries.
The breaking mechanism (usually gas or magnetic breaking) slows down and stops the car.

5. The Physics of Falling Video Clip

6. Gravity
Everything, regardless of whether it is a feather, a cannon ball, or a star, is attracting everything toward its center of mass.
Any object that has mass produces a gravitational pull toward its center.
Your body and your pen/pencil!
The Earth’s mass is so much greater than our masses, and therefore is its gravitational pull.
We do not notice the effect of gravity from other objects because we are overcome by the Earth’s.
We do not notice other pulls from smaller objects on Earth, which are negligible in comparison to Earth’s and are not strong enough to overcome friction.

7. What is Gravity? Video Clip

8. More About Gravity
Planets, moons and stars exert different sizes of forces of gravity on an object.
The Moon has 1/6 as much gravity as Earth.
The Sun could hypothetically hold 1 million Earths and has an immense gravitational pull. This is why the planets in our solar system orbit the Sun.
Remember that gravitational pull is a two way street. Just as the Earth pulls on the Moon, the Moon pulls on Earth. The tides on Earth are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun.

9. Weighing in on Gravity Mass Weight
Can be thought of as the amount of “stuff” that makes up an object.
Two things of the exact same size may have different masses because one could have more air inside or made of different substances.
Your mass, the amount of “stuff” in you, does not change depending on location.
Weight
Weight is affected by both mass and gravitational pull.
Weight is found by stepping on a scale and compressing a spring inside of the scale. The spring compresses because gravity is attracting and pulling the person downward.

10. Weighing in on Gravity
If an object were weighed on the Moon, the weight would appear to be one-sixth of what is on Earth; this is because the Moon has one-sixth the amount of Earth’s gravity.
However the object’s mass would not have changed.
Calculate how much you would weigh on the moon.

11. How Does Gravity Affect Heavy and Light Objects?
The force of gravity pulls all objects to the Earth at the same rate, regardless of the size or weight of the object.
Air resistance can slow the rate of fall.
Sky-divers!
A rock and a feather will fall at the same speed if placed in a vacuum…
Not a vacuum cleaner—a tube with all of the air pumped out.
Let’s give it a try… (tennis ball and paper)

12. Microgravity
Microgravity—means that some of the effects of gravity are minimized.
Free-fall rides provide a brief glimpse of this—a sense of weightlessness.
You are falling at the same rate as the ride car so the effects of gravity seem to disappear.
Riders experience the weightless feelings for less than 2 seconds.

13. Microgravity
If you could stand or sit on a scale during a free-fall ride, it would show that you would weigh less than normal.
Remember the spring in the scale? In order for the scale to read your weight, the spring must be compressed by a force (the downward force of gravity on your body).
Because the scale would be falling right along with you as the car is falling, there would be no downward force to compress the spring even if it were directly underneath you.

14. Weightlessness Video Clip

15. Acceleration Due To Gravity
Free-falling objects have an acceleration of 9.8 meters/second/second, downward (on Earth) all because of gravity.

16. Terminal Velocity
The terminal velocity occurs during free fall when a falling body continues to fall but stops accelerating.
This is because of air resistance. Air resistance exists because air molecules collide into a free faller creating an upward force opposite gravity. This upward force will eventually balance the falling body's weight. It will continue to fall at constant velocity known as the terminal velocity.
For a sky-diver, this is approximately 55 meters/second or 124 miles/hour

17. G-Forces Positive G-Forces Negative G-Forces
When you feel pressed into your seat
Free-fall rides that shoot you up into the air—in which case you feel as if you are getting pushed into your seat
Negative G-Forces
When you feel the sensation of your toosh leaving the seat—air time
Free-fall rides that drop you from high in the air—in which case you feel weightless, or weighing less than you usually do

18. Positive G’s When you feel heavy in your seat
1 “G” is the normal pull of gravity.
2 G’s feels like your weight doubled, 3 G’s is the feeling of a tripling of your normal weight
Most coasters pull about 4 G’s. Some 5 or 6.
At 5 G’s you can black out. At 9 you can die.

19. Negative G’s When you feel light in your seat
Anything below 1 G is considered a negative G
At 0 G’s, it is weightlessness
Negative G’s are a resistance of the force of gravity.
At -1 or -2, you feel as you are being sucked out of the ride’s car.

20. G-Forces Video Clip

21. Energy Potential Energy Kinetic Energy
Stored form of energy that can produce motion
the potential for motion
The Earth’s gravitational attraction cam be used as a source of potential energy.
Kinetic Energy
Form of energy related to an object’s motion
The more mass and/or speed, the higher the KE

22. Energy
How many “G’s” are felt during different portions of a free-fall ride?
Place an “X” where you feel the corresponding energy.