Gravity

Gravity is an invisible force that applies to all objects in the universe. Everything has gravity and every object pulls on every other object.

What does that mean? Well, you know the big hunk of rock that pulls on us at all times – Earth? It’s Earth’s gravity that keeps us connected to the ground.

But Earth isn’t the only one doing the pulling. Every object on its surface – including us humans – is also pulling on the Earth.

It’s a bit like when you have two strong magnets and plonk them next to one another. The magnets quickly jump towards each other because of magnetic attraction. The same thing happens with gravity.

The bigger the object, the bigger its gravitational pull. That’s why the Earth’s gravity keeps us and the Empire State Building fixed in place. But our gravitational pull is very weak and has barely any effect on the Earth.

Resistance

The Earth’s gravity is constant. In other words, as long as the Earth stays the same size, its gravitational pull will also remain the same.

In theory, then, everything should fall at the same speed. And indeed they would – if the air wasn’t there to get in the way.

The reason that a feather falls more slowly than a brick is air resistance. The particles of air push back on the falling object and slow it down. A brick is denser than a feather so isn’t affected by air resistance in the same way.

Inertia

Think about a large object falling to Earth – a piano, say.

It falls because gravity pulls on the piano and the piano’s gravity pulls on the Earth. And as it falls, it gets faster and faster.

But what if gravity suddenly stopped working? What would happen to the piano?

The answer is that it would keep moving but it would stop getting faster.

This idea is known as inertia. In simple terms, it means that once something starts moving, it wants to continue moving.

And with that, we have all the information we need to start exploring the science behind amusement park rides.

Slides

Slides come in all sorts of shapes and sizes – but they all work in the same way.

Remember what we said about air resistance? If there was no air resistance, a falling object would accelerate at 9.8 m/s².

What the heck does that mean?

It means this: if you fell from a height of one metre with no air resistance, you would hit the ground at a speed of 9.8 metres per second. If you fell from two metres, your speed would double – you’d be travelling at 19.6 metres per second by the time you hit the ground.

So, without any resistance, you’ll keep moving faster and faster toward the ground. This is why falling from higher distances is more dangerous.

A slide lets you enjoy the best of both worlds. It gives you something to push against as you fall down. Along with air resistance, this helps fight the force of gravity so you don’t accelerate so quickly.

However, because the slide is at an angle, the force is only reduced by a certain amount. A slide is thrilling because it feels a bit like a free fall – but not too much.

Log Flumes

Log flumes are basically big slides – and they work in the same way. They have a big ramp that allows the cart to accelerate without going really, really fast.

But there’s another force at play on a log flume: surface tension.

When the cart hits the lake at the bottom, it’s the water’s surface tension that makes it slow down quite quickly.

But you don’t stop immediately. The downward force of the cart is transferred into the water over several seconds. In physics, we call this lengthening the impact of an otherwise sudden change.

By increasing impact time, we decrease the force on the riders. That’s part of the thrill of a log flume – we enjoy the sensation of slowing down without stopping so quickly that we hurt ourselves.

Dodgems

To understand dodgems, we need to first understand how a circuit works.

When you flick a light switch or a power socket, you’re not really turning on the electricity. You’re tapping into a current that’s already there.

This electric current moves in one big circuit. It starts at a power station, trails over to your house via electricity cables and then works its way back to the generator again.

Electricity has to move in a circuit. If the circuit is broken, the electricity won’t work.

You can see this happen on a smaller scale by connecting a small light bulb to a switch and a battery. When you flick the switch to the “on” position, it moves a little piece of metal that allows electricity to flow through. But when you turn it off, the circuit is broken and the bulb goes out.

How does this relate to dodgems?

Well, you might have noticed that dodgems have big antennas that reach up to the roof. It’s these antennas that help the cars complete a circuit.

Electricity is running when the dodgems are turned on – and the electrical current flows from the roof above the cars all the way to the floor and back again.

As well as antennas, the dodgem cars also have special wheels that transfer the electricity through the floor. This completes the circuit and allows the cars to move.

And in case you were wondering, it’s OK to step on the floor at the bumper cars even with the current running. Unless you reach up and touch the roof, you won’t complete the circuit.

Rollercoasters

Rollercoasters use all of the concepts we’ve looked at so far.

They take advantage of gravity by starting a cart at a high altitude and letting it fall. This lets gravity do almost all of the work.

And thanks to inertia, the cart wants to keep on moving. It will only slow down if another force like air resistance comes into play.

Air resistance does play a part. But the coaster’s humps and hills are more of a problem. They slow the coaster down – but with enough speed, the cart can get over the hump and receive another gravitational boost at the top.

The real buzzkill for rollercoasters is friction. This is caused by microscopic bumps. When two objects come into contact, these bumps rub against one another and slow things down.

Because the track causes friction, some longer rollercoasters need extra boosts in the middle of a track. These can be provided by motorised pulleys.

Ever noticed that chck-chck-chck sound when a coaster goes up a hill? That’s the pulley system in action.

We don’t know about you, but all this talk of rides makes us want to try some out. The good news is that we’ve got all of them here at Adventure Coast Southport. Start preparing for an amazing day out with the family in Lancashire – book your Pleasureland theme park tickets today.