Coaster Speed

[NAPayne31]

How do parks and manufacturers figure a coasters speed? Obviously they have an idea of how fast it will go prior to the ride being built but once it's built do they have sort of speedometers in the trains that keep track if speed and RPM's??

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

How do parks and manufacturers figure a coasters speed? Obviously they have an idea of how fast it will go prior to the ride being built but once it's built do they have sort of speedometers in the trains that keep track if speed and RPM's??

Wouldn't they just do distance divided by time or something else to do with physics? I don't know much about physics but I think distance divided by time = speed.

 

[Hixee]

^Correct. Speed = distance/time. Once the coaster is built then little sensors on the track are used to measure how long it takes the train to pass between two points. This is how the block brakes/trims know when to activate.

How many of these sensors they have in the track (that aren't directly associated with a block/trim) I wouldn't know though.

As for the 'design speed', they're probably able to get relatively accurate numbers from their simulation software (I would guess within a couple of percent). They will have friction and air resistance models built into their code allowing them to make sure the coaster will actually work, and so it would be relatively easy to just extract the values to find maximum speeds etc.

Worth noting that the software they're using to 'design' the ride (the shape/size of the supports, track stresses, the proper 'engineering stuff') isn't the same stuff they show in the promotional videos. That'll just be a (sometimes) glorified NL type package for display purposes.

 

[Hyde]

Radar guns also never fail. TTD operates one at the end of its launch that displays the speed of the launch for onlookers.

 

[Intricks]

Unless I am having a MASSIVE brain dilemma, that sign is gone.