Gazza

Well, heres an alternate explaination on how magnetic brakes work... For starters, you have two paralel magnets placed a little bit apart, with the north side of one magnet facing the south side of the other. That makes a magnetic field exist between them. Now, when you move a length of conductor (Eg a wire, or in this case the copper brake fin on the freefall car) through a magnetic field a current is created in the conductor. (Generators actually work by this principle, since coils of wire spin around in a magnetic field, since the coils are rotating, they are moving, and thats why you get current from a generator) So in this case, because the copper brake fin goes in between the pair of magnets you get a current in the fin. NOTE THAT BECAUSE THE BRAKE FIN IS MADE OF COPPER IT IS NOT ATTRACTED TO THE MAGNETS (since only very few metals can be attracted to magnets, like iron for example) Since the copper fin has a current flowing through it (yes current does flow) the copper fin acts like an electromagnet. (It is like when you wind coils of wire around a nail, and then let current flow through the coils by hooking it up to a battery, you make an electromagnet) Because of the direction of the current in the fin, the electromagnetic field created actually opposes the magnetic field from the pair of magnets mentioned at the start. Because these fields are opposing each other the freefall car is forced to slow down. And for those of you that already know this stuff, im sorry that I used "Current" instead of EMF, but i wanted to keep it simple.

I think the main point of running 1 train is to save money on wages (Thats a pretty major cost), as well as artificially limiting the number of cycles (When you think about it, pushing such a heavy train around the dark ride section, before flinging to 100 in a couple of seconds is actually going to be pretty energy intensive) And really, 15 minutes queue for superman is really not a lot, compared to other parks.

But the train moves as a unit, and the launch is straight so there would be no difference. Its not quite the same as how you can get different levels of airime depending where you sit. Oh, and Mickey, if they are running 2 trains you will get lots of rides.

To tell you the truth, SM actually has better forces in the front for some reason. I think its mainly because of the wierd airtime on the top hat (it peaks twice) but for the first pop the front car is going faster. The second pop is pretty non existent.

I talk to the people Im with.

But tornado has had a very slow construction period, they could have easily fit it in. I think they didnt bother because its not really necessary and its just another expense. Going by that logic, we shouldnt bother to paint the outside of our house, tend to the garden, clean the driveway etc because we spend most of our time indoors rather than hanging around outside. IMO the entrance is important, all buildings should look good but currently what they are doing seems quite dated, but i think we all know that making things look nice isnt DWs strong point.

Actually, its on the final turn before the brake run at the lowest point. For the best picture sit in the very back car in the very back seat, as the camera will get a shot with the superman on the back of the train in view.

Someones stereotyping.... Anyway, it was an OK ride, it was my first looper. I wasnt that special, but it was still fun.

Whoops I guess i sort of forgot that you would be weightless on the upwards part.....

One thing i have been meaning to post about for a little while is that 6.5 secs of weightlessness claim about the TOT. I guess nobody has really questioned it, but i dont actually think its possibe. Firstly, after watching one of the videos and watching the time from the moment the pod starts falling back down to the moment it reaches the beginning of the launch section (in other words the bottom of the slope to vertical) since this is the time that you are in freefall and hence would be weightless. i got a time of 5 secs, which is below the 6.5 figure stated. Of course the actual time spent weightless would be less than this as on the slope to vertical you would have the G-forces pushing you down into your seat, but just to prove my point i included all of it. Now secondly, if you were to drop an object from a height of 115m (The absolute highest the ride could reach) then: x=ut+1/2at^2 where x=-115, a=-9.8 (value of g) u=0 (since it is starting from rest) and t=? then -115=0t+1/2(-9.8)t^2 -115=-4.9t^2 23.47=t^2 t=4.84 secs Now this is negating friction, but i doubt it would be much for such a heavy pod, but anyway, even if there was friction it wouldnt be able to accelerate towards the ground at g so you wouldnt get true weightlessness anyway. Thoughts?

Maybe DW picked it up somehow?

What are they going to theme it to? Happy Feet?

Haha Joz, i just did. Now I can gain a true sense of Richos frustration in trying to explain how the magnetic brakes work. Electromagnetisim was my fave are of study in unit 4 physics (Didn't even get full marks on the SAC ), and now I am done with it I can see exactly what he was talking about....

I have never felt so misunderstood in my whole life Well for starters the starting post didnt sound like it was written by a mexican, plus in his first post he said he was from Langwarrin.. And just to top it off, he also said: But if Mexico is in the Northern Hemisphere, and Australia is in the southern one, then heading north would not be going to Australia.... Hmmm, but i thought he said So why would i give info relating to the non peak time? Im taking a punt but MW will probably run 2 trains during the school holidays. But I said...

While queues can get long you can avoid them with a few "stratergies" -Firstly, get the kids up early (Though they probably will have woken up at 6am from excitement anyway) and turn up at the park half an hour to 15 minutes before opening time. Pre purchase your tickets online or through RACV (im assuming your from Victoria), this website sells Dreamworld tickets too. By doing this you can get into the park quickly and ride many of the attractions early without a queue at all, sometimes you can even do multiple rides in a short space of time. -Some parks open early/close later (DW does these, and WnW is open late), but for some reason people dont know this so the parks are much quieter at these times. Check the websites, last summer DW opened at 9:30 AM (normally opens at 10:30 i think), when i visited i was able to go on the Big 5 thrill rides all within the hour, some even a couple of times. Similarly, at WnW when the dive in movies are on the rest of the park is pretty quiet so the amount of rides you can go on is really only limited by how fast you can run up the stairs -Remember that some rides never have bad lines so you can ride them anytime, for example Superman escape at Movie World, Corkscrew at Sea World, The Wipeout & The Claw at Dreamworld all are efficent rides, which means fast moving queues. (If you are up for it, see how many times you can ride superman escape in an hour, 10 times is pretty achieveable ) -Remember some rides always have bad lines, so ride them early, for example most of DWs rides get bad lines, especially Giant Drop, Cyclone and TOT. Bermuda Triangle at SW can get busy too, as can a lot of the slides at WnW. I have no idea how busy White Water Worlds' slides will get, but since its a brand new park im guessing it will be pretty busy. -Not all rides are terrible, Take Wild West Falls at MW for instance, even if the whole queue house is full you wont be waiting more than 20 minutes (this is based on my last visit, assuming they run the same number of boats). Scooby Doo at MW is an odd one, and the queues can be pretty variable, if the whole hall is full then avoid it, but if its say only a little bit full then go for it, and anyway there is a nice movie you can watch in there which is interesting so you dont get bored. -The kids rides are never a worry in terms of lines so they will have plenty of fun on them. -Many of the people here exaggerate about stuff, maybe being at the park makes their brain go all wacky so they overestimate etc, anyway the queues are not really as bad as some say. I once read that someone waited 3 hours for Wild West Falls which is a load of.......... When i went up early this year i was sort of in the same boat as you as i hadnt been for ages and had heard all these horror stories and i went in January too, but i had a good time and had few long waits at all. Just have fun, but really, turning up early is probably the best thing you can do.

If its going to be a dark ride, does anyone else think it could be the Prison Break attraction like at LPM? Putting that up in a short time frame would be easy, from what was shown on TV it is just a maze made from chain link fencing, but lit with strobes, plus the timeframe for the LPM one closing would enable this one to open in time.

What about a shopping precinct with Cinemas, Bowling Alleys etc like what is being planned at...oh wait never mind. I think something like that could work if it were a really good resort, sort of like the Nick resort in Florida, I would probably pick it because of its proximity, I actually stayed at this place called the GC holiday park which was fully booked when i was there, it was pretty good too, and they were planning to build a motor inn type section too, if they can survive I think a resort could too.

And anyway, $5.5 Mil of debt is nothing these days.

Just found an article in todays Herald Sun about the Southern Star Observation Wheel. The contracts to build the pods have reportedly been signed with Meshio but the opening has been pushed back to October 2008. Though one thing i found a bit worrying was the price: over $120 Million, thats what? 2 WWWs? 10 superman escapes? 20 Claws? 6 WnW/Jamberoo Expansions? 1/2 a DW? or one big ferris wheel? and they want to charge $25 for a 30 minute ride. Thats 4.8 million visitors just to cover construction costs, and assumes that about 1/4 of Australias population actually wants to ride it. IMO it seems like a pretty poor project, especially since they are just copying London and I dont think it will be as popular as they think it will be. It seems all of Docklands has become something that only really appeals to those with money to burn (Except for maybe Telstra Dome) Thoughts?

I personally dont mind the database page that much, its simple to use.

I thought it would be basically the same as ever

Im guessing but could they simply be doing a new film for the 3D theatre?

His point about the carpark was only 1 line out of a 41 line post so I dont think it was a major point. I think the main thing GoGoBoy was trying to say is that while $100 million was spent, only a small fraction actually went into what Luna Park is all about; being an amusement park. while it isn't bad they are making money, it just seems they aren't giving Luna Park the treatment it deserves. But basically, you could sum it up like this; Luna Park isnt as good as it has been, and i feel no fun park should ever decline like that. Its only in recent years it has become a collection of carnie rides. Sydney has only a limited amount of waterfront -and this is not just a theme park enthusiast talking here, but someone with a bit of an interest in urban development too- and I dont think a place like luna park in its location should be crudded up with stuff thats so tacky, if they are going to take the helm of something with so much history, fame, and iconic status it should be done properly.

For some reason the new "other news" bit of the front page looks like this:

With this development, I wonder how far of WVTP are from launching their "fun pass" / custom passes. I think its fairly critical that they make one avaliable fairly soon, as there will be many choosing between a world pass and forking out for a 3 park super pass, and based on price lots will go for the world pass. It would make sense therefore for WVTP to make avaliable a "pick any 2" type ticket that would be able to compete directly. Still $32 aint bad for what is there. I can see it being appealing to younger families, as they are paying less for better attractions suited to them (the huge nick play structure and wiggles pool)