Fun With Physics

Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 2035 hrs

I forgot to mention what I did last weekend. Last weekend I went to Silverwood Theme Park and rode roller coasters for the first time in my life.

As Morah and I were climbing the slope of the Timber Terror, both of us never having ridden on a real roller coaster before, I was somewhat nervous, partly because I didn't know what to expect, and partly because the entire thing is made out of wood. Dodgy as it seemed, the ride was amazing and as soon as we got off, I queued up again for another ride.

The second roller coaster we rode on is called Tremors. It goes sixty miles per hour, has a hundred foot drop, and goes underground several times. It was a blast.

For the last few hours that we were in the park, I tried to decide if I wanted to ride on the third roller coaster at the park; The Corkscrew. So called because part of the track is shaped like a corkscrew, causing the riders to be upside down twice. My sister rode it years ago and said that it was a really bumpy ride, plus I was nervous about it, so I decided not to go. Then, several hours later, I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that I would rather regret riding it, than regret not riding it.

It was tons of fun and something I look forward to doing again.

We did lots of other stuff at Silverwood that day, but riding on the roller coasters is what sticks out in my mind as the highlight of the day. So, total roller coaster riding count to date: once on The Corkscrew, twice on Tremors, and three times on the Timber Terror. I think next time I go to the park, I'm going to spend most of my time riding the roller coasters.

Now what I really want to do is go to other theme parks and ride on other roller coasters!