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Where Is The Best Place To Sit On A Roller Coaster? Forces, Physics, And Fun At Disneyland, Kelsey Lubetich
Where Is The Best Place To Sit On A Roller Coaster? Forces, Physics, And Fun At Disneyland, Kelsey Lubetich
Scripps Senior Theses
The work presented in this thesis was undertaken to quantitatively determine the best place to sit on a roller coaster. Maximizing the time spent feeling weightless and the highest value of negative Z acceleration were used as criteria for the best seat. Acceleration values were measured on the California Screamin' roller coaster at Disney California Adventure Park using an iPhone and an application to record data from its accelerometers. After analyzing acceleration data, it was determined that the front row had the greatest negative acceleration in the z direction and was therefore the "best place" to sit.