Does the thought of whizzing through a loop-the-loop in an open car make your heart beat a little faster? How do you feel about riding that car straight down from 150 feet above the ground? Just gotta try it?
To millions of visitors annually, roller coasters are the highlights of theme parks. Many of the most spectacular of those rides such as SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa or Dragon Kahn at Port Aventura, Spain began as designs at St. Louis architecture firm PGAV.
As explained by the designers at PGAV, successful coasters use a fiendish knowledge of psychology firmly grounded in the basics of physics. (A bit of human physiology is also incorporated to make the rides very safe.)
Here’s how Bill Castle, vice president of PGAV, explains the psychological scripting of a “dive coaster” like SheiKra, recently named the top coaster in central Florida:
“You start out with a little fear. Your trepidation increases as you go up—the clickety click of the lift gets on your nerves. Then you hang at the top looking down 200 feet for about ten seconds, with the suspense constantly building. The adrenaline is in full flower when you go down that drop, and every nerve in your body is tingling. Time seems to slow down, and you are hyperaware. At the bottom of the (200 foot) drop you go into a long pullout and begin another climb. It’s all energy management—fast and slow, high and low.”
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This article was originally published in the St. Louis Beacon.