Stuff You Should Know - How Rollercoasters Work, Minus the Fun

Episode Date: April 28, 2011

Whether you're a rollercoaster fan or avoid them like the plague, there's no denying that these contraptions are striking examples of physics at work. So how do they actually work? Join Josh and Chuck as they break down the mechanics of rollercoasters. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HouseStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me, as always, is Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the audio podcast that is now transcribed and available on the blogs. Oh, is it there? Yes, the deaf and hard of hearing community is ready to go.

So, yes, Josh, and that is exciting. Expand the group of people that can get on the train, you know what I'm saying? I think so. I hope so. Yes. You're talking about listening, getting like to experience the podcast. Yeah, on the bandwagon. Then yes, I know what you're talking about. Chuck, Josh, you ready to do this? Yeah. Have you ever, my arms are up. Have you ever been on a roller coaster? I am a roller coaster guy. Yeah. I wouldn't call myself one of those guys, you know, who like make special trips to states just to ride the coaster, but I've always been a fan. There are plenty of people who do that. Oh, yeah. And not just the states, like Japan is big with roller coasters as well. Dubai. And do they have

huge roller coasters? I could totally see. Yeah, one of them is on the list. I didn't get the list. I'll share it with you. Well, I can't wait to hear it with the other few hundred thousand people at the same time who are listening to this. Chuck, I am not a roller coaster guy, despite being from originally Ohio, which is the home of arguably the greatest amusement park in the world, Cedar Point. Yeah, Sandusky. Yeah. Right there on the water. It's nice. It is very nice. On the other side, you have the Breakers Hotel, Kataba Island, where my family vacationed for many years when I was a kid. And we would go to Cedar Point pretty frequently, but from a very young age, I was terrified of roller coasters because, let me paint you a picture.

When I was, I think, three, my dad said, Josh, here we are at Disney World. Why don't you let me take you on this great ride called Space Mountain? Yeah, which now is very tame when you look at it. It's not tame to me. I've since been on it, and it's still not tame. All right. Even as a, from a three-year-old to a 20-something, it's no difference because I've been completely spoiled on roller coasters now. I was a very young kid. My dad was taking me on Space Mountain. I had no idea what to expect, and I'm damaged goods now. Really? Did that just put a dent in it for you? It did. Now, if I actually go, if I can get the courage up to actually go on a roller coaster, I have just an amazing time. Yeah, sure. But it's the standing in line and going up the first hill

that, like, I can't do it. I can't do it, Chuck. Yeah. I had a similar experience in that I would not ride roller coasters, but I really enjoyed the park. Six Flags, obviously, here in Georgia. And we had the family seasons pass every year, and at a certain point in age, my father said, you know, you're going to go on these roller coasters if we're going to pay for you to get in the park. Yeah. And I used to... Hanging out with the banana splits is not worth the money. Yeah. That alone is not. Well, here's how bad it stunk for me, is I would wait in line the whole time, because I was with my family, and then when the time came, I would walk through the car to the other side. Oh, yeah. And I used to have terrors that they would, like, I would slip and fall in

the seat, and the bar would come down, and that was it. It's like a Scooby-Doo theme park. Yeah. So he forced me to go on, I think, the Mine Mender, and I never looked back. I was like, thanks, Dad. That was awesome. That is really great. That's the exact opposite of my story, and that one came out really well. Yeah. So I like them now, yeah. Sure. Yumi's actually ruined our roller coaster because her dad took her on Space Mountain as well. Oh, really? But he pretended like he didn't know what was going on, and like he was freaking out, and that just ruined it. So our kids never going to go on a roller coaster because both of his or her parents are going to be too nervous about that. Plus, the older you get, I mean, I went to Cedar Point

a couple of years ago, and it's harder when you get a little older. The lines seem longer. Yeah. The heat is more oppressive. Sure. And these roller coasters. People seem more redneck-y. Yeah. And these roller coasters now are like astronaut training. It's, I mean, I can take a lot, but I would get off with some of these thinking, man. You're talking about the top thrill dragster? Oh, they've got a bunch up there that kind of made me feel queasy. I mean, it was fun, but it also tested the limits of my intestinal fortitude. Nice. Well, let's talk about this. Okay. I have to say this article by Tom Harris, who's on par with the grabster in my opinion. Yeah, Tom's good. He basically breaks down exactly what's going on on a roller coaster,

and I was kind of hoping that understanding this would make me feel better about him. I don't think it's had any effect like that at all. But at the very least now, you and I can explain what the deal is with roller coaster. That's right. Let's start, Chuck. Let's let's take it back to 16th century Russia. Who would have thunk it? That's where it all began, Josh. You're right. Originally, they had these ice slides, very steep wooden slides covered in ice. You got a little sled. Yeah. And I imagine it looks sort of like the long straight water slide that they have today. Or I took it like the ski jump, but without the jump part at the bottom. Yeah, that too. But it wasn't just a sled. These things with these slides were covered in ice. The track was. Yeah. But then at times,

you could also ride a block of ice. Yeah. So you can imagine some crazy 16th century Russians riding a block of ice down a 70 foot slope into a sand pit. Loaded on vodka. Yeah. Probably. That's that is all roller coaster historians agree. The beginning of roller coasters, right? Yeah. And the next step is a little somewhat disputed, but the best story we found was that the French got on board and said, we're going to build one of these. But in France, it got hot. The ice melted. So they said, well, let's just wax the wood. And then they said, hey, let's just put wheels on it. And all of a sudden, you had a wheeled roller coaster in 1817. Yeah. First one. Yeah. The first one was the Russian mountains of Belleville on France. They were uses a Belleville.

Yeah. And like you said, 1817. Yeah. That was introduced. And from that point on, that was kind of like the explosion of modern. Well, I don't want to say explosion of modern roller coasters because it took a good 30, 40, 50 years. But after that, it exploded, right? Yeah. Yes. The United States and Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s had the first one in the U.S. And it was sort of like they still have these two that go up the side of a mountain. I know. I've been on the incline railway in Tennessee. Yeah. That's sort of what it's like. Terrifying too. It basically was an old coal line that they would take you up in a cart slowly and they call it a scenic tour. Yeah. And then I get the impression they would let you down a little

more quickly. Yes. Adding to the thrill. And this was like 1850. It was the mid 19th century. And it cost a dollar. And I went and did the West Egg inflation calculator 2588 in 2010 dollars. What a rip. Well, I don't know, man. I mean, that this is it. Well, there is no other thing even resembling a roller coaster in the United States. You're going to pay 25 bucks. And it probably ensures that it's either that or playing Russian roulette. Yeah. They probably ensured those rich people too. Sure. Which rich people in old coal cars. Yes. So from that point on, Pennsylvania apparently was a has had like the longstanding tradition, longstanding history of roller coasters because they had that called the Mount Chunk switchback railway. Yeah. That was

that first roller coaster you described. And then they had real ones like Kennywood Park. Still there. One of the first amusement parks. Yeah, it is still there. And then, of course, the world famous Coney Island. And then the 1920s happened. And there are as many rides as many rides. I don't know roller coasters, but there were as many rides in operation in 1920. As there were people in the United States. No, as there are as there are roller coasters today. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So they replaced the old obviously. Well, yeah, that's part of it. But at the same time, you would think like you just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and there'd be more and more and more. But the Great Depression and World War Two kind of cut the head off of

roller coasters and amusement parks for a while. And it wasn't till the 70s and 80s that, you know, that the the advent of the modern roller coaster that you know and love today. And I hate. Right. Really began. Right. Yeah. So you don't even go to parks probably then, right? What's the point? I went to Dollywood. That was fun. But we wouldn't ride that roller coaster. That's pretty low stress, I would think as far as it is because there's so much other stuff to do. Yes. No cedar point. No. Or can you see the point? It's just like shame, humility, shame, you know, every every turn. So should we talk about some of the components of the train itself and how it works? I think we should because really, I was surprised at how ridiculously simple this

is. Yeah. And you know what? I didn't know and maybe I'm a dummy, but I didn't realize that almost all of the ride is based on just forward momentum. And so it's acceleration and gravity. Yeah. All those things combined, but it's not like there's points along the track that like, oh, we're slowing down. We need to give you an extra magnetic boost. Right. Right. Yes. It's all found in that initial first hill. Yes. Which you're carried up the hill many times by a chain lift. Yeah. You know, that sound that sound probably strikes fear in your head. Yeah. Or the slower versions even worse. Yes. And that is a, it's sort of like a bike chain on a loop. And there's a gear. I'm like a motor. It's just kind of turning. Yeah. There's a gear at the top

and a motor at the bottom and you hook onto it with something called a chain dog. It's basically a hook and it pulls you up the hill. Like on a conveyor belt. Yep. And then releases you at the top and then physics does its thing. Right. And then another way to get up the hill is the catapult launch lift, which is slightly more sophisticated. This is like, what was the name of the ride? King of the car. Yeah. That was that. I had an idea. Actually, that might be magnetic. Yeah. Well, there's, there's basically two ways to do it. The linear induction motor produces magnets. Right. And they are attracted to one another and it's the motor is attached to the train cars. Yeah. And the motor is moving along the track because of these two magnetic fields

that are attracted to one another and it's pulling the train with it. Yeah. And that can generate really high precise speeds all of a sudden, which I prefer being shot out of a cannon on that King of the car. Exactly. And then another way to do it is to have two sets of wheels that are spinning really quickly that kind of grip the train cars and then shoot you up there too. Yeah. You know, both massive acceleration initially. I think I don't know what the number is, but zero to 60 and the blink of an eye. Yeah. I think that is it the top speed or the top thrill drag sir. I think it's top thrill drag sir. Okay. So that one goes like to 120 miles an hour in like a second or two. Yeah. It's a top speed of 120 and you must get that right out of the

gate. Right. And then lastly, the really big component that operates roller coasters or the brakes. Yeah. And they're not so different than any kind of disc brake in theory. Basically, it clamps down on these metal fins and the pads slow it down when the little 16 year old pimply face kid pushes the button. Actually, it's all computers, but yeah, don't scare people. I like to think that your life is in that that that boy's hands. Right. That that one teenager from the Simpsons. Yeah. I forgot to push the button. So those, those are the components of the, those are the moving parts, right? Yeah. But then you also have the track itself, which is basically broken down into two categories. Yeah. You have steel coasters and you have wooden

coasters, right? Whitties, I think is there affectionately known by enthusiasts. By sickos. Actually, I don't know. I think, I think they're called witties. I might have just made that up. So obviously the witties are those big old school ones you still see. I don't even think they make wooden ones at all anymore. Do they? I don't know because the tallest one is the son of the beast at Kings Island or Kings Dominion. And that one is old. That's like eighties. Yeah. And I would, I would imagine they keep topping them if they were going to keep building them. Well, so the deal obviously, you know, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. There's not nearly as much flex in a stiff wood planks. So they don't do tons of twisting and

turning. It's really just about up and down, up and down. Plus height is a big factor as well. Yeah, you can't go up so high. That the son of the beast is about half as tall as the highest steel coaster. Yeah. Right. And it's, I would imagine expense is kind of a big deal. Maintenance is huge because these are basically like railroad ties, you know, every few feet and they're interlocking and supporting each hill and twist and turn. Yeah. They're just inherently more dangerous because they're less precise. Yeah. But for nostalgia, you can't beat it. That is true. Then of course you have the steel track. And these are the ones where you suddenly can go upside down on a corkscrew. Yeah. And you can dangle from it and basically just come as close to death as

possible. Yes, Josh. 1950s is when tubular steel first made its debut. And here you got wheels that are made of polyurethane or nylon, sort of more like a skateboarding wheel. Yeah. And bitfire. Yeah. And they generally have like wheels on top, wheels on the side, wheels on the bottom. And it's just clamped down on that sucker. Yes. Very well. Yeah. Don't be afraid. Then there's other ways that the train car can be attached to the track. You can have a suspended coaster, which like hangs down from a track above. Those are fun. And it's not, it's not fused. So you can like kind of turn or flip out to the side. Those are awesome. Flip out in general. Yeah. And then there's the inverted coaster, which is the same thing except it's fused to the track. It's not

going from side to side. Right. It's rigid. Yes. It's the word I'm looking for. Right? Yes. What else? You've got the flying. That's when you're in a seated position. At first. Yeah. But you're rotated up. And I think that's the one at Six Flags. You're like sitting flat and then they pull you up and backwards until you are completely 90 degrees facing straight down. And then they'll let you go and you start from there. Right. There's also ones where you're sitting and then like the car actually reconfigures. So you're flat. So your chest is parallel to the ground as if you're flying. Right. Yes. Okay. Is that the fourth dimension? I think, I think fourth dimension would be maybe like if you have a suspended coaster and it was on a ball bearing joint. So when you went

around a curve, you could actually like do a 360 and kick out to the side. It's not just forward, back, up, down. I've ridden the fourth dimension. Are they horrible? No. It's basically you're sitting in a seat that's like a wing that is on the outside of the track. So you have the track in the center and these two little wings on each side. And as you're going through these loops, your car itself, your seat itself is actually performing loops as well. Sometimes in the opposite direction of the loop you're currently in. It sounds awful. Yeah. It sounds like also what you just described is a pipeline coaster as well where like the tube, the steel tube is going in down the middle of the car. Yeah. Fourth dimension is just an extra spin on the pipeline design.

Right. Spin literally. Yeah. I didn't even mean that. And then of course there's stand up, the traditional sit down. Stand up, you like those? I think I've only been on one and I liked it. Yeah. There's the Loch Ness, I think, at Kings Island. Yeah. I don't know. Didn't do too much for you. Well, I just didn't add much of it. You're like, I have to stand up all day. I go on a roller coaster so I can sit for a while. For my money, the ones where you hang down in the seat, like if you sit on the outside front row of those, it's just like it feels like you're flying. Yeah. A lot of fun. Yeah. I've not been on one of those. Probably never will. And then of course there's Bob sled. Wheeled trains on a U-shaped track, probably the most dangerous and old-timey of all.

I would think so. It's basically like the retro Russian sled thing except that the block of ice. That's right. Okay. So there you go. There's the roller coasters. Those are all the parts moving and otherwise. It's physics time. Now it is physics time. So Chuck, to basically a roller coaster ride is an interplay of two forces. You have gravity, the downward pull of gravity. Yeah. And the force of acceleration. Yeah. Acceleration to me is where it all happens. Okay. I mean, they're all actually working together along with the visual cues, which we'll get to is really what makes it happen. But the acceleration to me is where you get your rush. Okay. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse.

This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid.

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actually pretty interesting because we can explain things like the feeling of your stomach leaving your body and that kind of thing. So don't go away. Okay. So Chuck, to gain momentum, to generate speed, velocity, forward momentum, inertia, I think is what it's called, right? Yeah. You, just about every roller coaster has at first hill, right? Yeah, that gets you going. It's always got to be the tallest one, right? Yes. And when you're at that point, you are at the peak of what's called potential energy. That's right. As you're going up the hill, you're, you're increasing potential energy until you crest the hill and gravity takes over, pulling you downward, right? And at that point, your potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, which is that downward

momentum. That's right. So as you go further and further down the hill, you lose potential energy, you gain kinetic energy, and then every successive hill after that takes advantage of a constant change between kinetic and potential energy to keep your speed going, to get it going faster, to slow you down. And that's how the roller coaster stays going as quickly as it does throughout the whole ride. And it stays in motion. Mr. Isaac Newton had a little rule, let's call it a law, first law of motion that something in motion tends to stay in motion. And that's what's going on here. And, you know, the roller coasters are precisely designed, like you want to go down that first hill and go up the second hill and be like, Oh, I couldn't quite make it. And then you're going

back down, right? Although the King Deca has been known to not be able to make it up that hill. What? Yeah, it happened to me once. We did the first TV commercial for the King Deca. I was working on it. So we wrote it like a dozen times without anyone there. And a couple of times, and it may not do that anymore. They might have been working the kinks out. You get shot up straight up in the air, and you come back down and do it again. You know, they relaunch you. It may still happen. You have this look of terror. Josh has just fallen over. I'm sorry. I think it's some smelling salts. All right. So, um, geez. Yeah. See, I love it though, because you get two shoots out of the gate, which is the most fun part. Yeah. I mean, I could see how you would appreciate that. I find

that that's just awful. I wish you hadn't told me that. I'm never going on that roller coaster now. All right. So like you said, object in motion tends to stay in motion. And there are opposing forces, but the track is any, any roller coaster tracks going to be designed to take advantage of building up potential and then potential energy and then releasing it is kinetic, right? Yes. So while this is happening, um, you're, you have acceleration, but you also have gravity, and gravity is constantly exerting a downward pressure on your body. Yeah. The reason gravity is exerting that pressure is because Chuck, did you know that the earth's atmosphere actually has a measurable weight and it's considerable? Yeah. Okay. Can I tell you what it is? Yeah.

Four? Four. It's close. 4.41 quadrillion tons. Wow. So that's four point, that's four comma, four, one, and then 13 zeros. That's a lot. That is, that's a lot of weight. Obviously, it's not pressing down on you all at once or else you would be crushed into oblivion, right? It's pushing up, right? Well, gravity is pushing down and you should conceivably, if the earth was like a kind of a warm marshmallow, you'd go right into the center. Yeah. But you don't because the earth isn't a warm marshmallow. So the ground actually presses back up, right? There's pressure from the, from the resistance created by the ground. Yeah. And that's the sensation of weight. Exactly. Because the, the bones in your feet press up to the bones on your leg and et cetera,

et cetera. And all of a sudden you feel like you have a little bit of weight to you, right? Yes. So that's the feeling of gravity. Yes. Then acceleration has its own for, has its own feeling. Yeah. And that's my favorite because that's when your body, and it's interesting because it's an opposite force acting on you. If you're being shot forward at 100 miles an hour, you're going to be feeling like you're being pushed backward. Right. And with both gravity and with acceleration, you feel the opposite. Like you're being pressed down by gravity, but you feel the resistance from the earth. Yes. Cause you're a nurse is different than your little train car that you're in. Well, that's the same. Yes. It's the same with acceleration and gravity. You feel the

opposite feeling. So like you said, when you're being shot forward, it feels like you're being pressed back in your seat. Yeah. That's actually your seat pressing on your back, which I just, that's the fact of this roller coaster podcast. Yeah. That's great. I actually, I think we'll, we'll get to the mind with the stomach thing. Okay. And then similarly, Chuck, when, when the roller coaster slows down, you feel like say the harness or the safety bar in front of you, pressing into you. Yeah. Right. So you're feeling the opposite sensation. Like the, the bottom of the hill, let's say, is when you'll feel most heavy and we're using air quotes, usually say that, but I stole it. Right. Um, the, the other reason for the sensations that you feel

is that you're in the car and the car is being acted on in its own way. Yeah. That's different than the way you're being acted on. So there's not just an interplay between these forces, but there's an interplay between you and the car, like the seat pushing on you, the harness pushing on you, or maybe even feeling like you're, you're lifting up, right? Right. So let's talk about that. Yeah. That is the cool weightless feeling you get. You reach a certain point eventually where acceleration and gravity balance each other out. So that's where you feel weightless. And if you are, uh, well, actually, should we get to the stomach part? Yeah. What's going on inside your body is you're not a solid chunk of wood. Most of us aren't. Most of us are comprised of

different organs all placed in this gushy body inside. So these things are going to react differently. Your different organs are going to react, uh, different apart from one another. So if you have that weightless feeling, that is actually your stomach having less force exerted on it in a downward motion. So you feel like your stomach is going up because it kind of is. Yeah. And that's when you're coming down a hill and the force of acceleration and the force of gravity are equal. That's airtime, baby. Well, airtime is when acceleration exceeds gravity and you feel like you, you, you don't just feel like you're being pulled upward. If you let go, you will lift up in your seat, right? Because again, the forces are acting

differently on the car than they are on you. And it's just like a cartoon where like your head stays here and your neck just elongates. Yeah. It's virtually the same thing. It's based on that principle that our bodies aren't solid, like you said. Right. And that'll happen obviously in a freefall ride or when you crest the top of a large hill, you'll feel like you're coming out of your seat because you are right. So that's airtime when you are actually out of your seat, right? Yes. That is the freefall. That's the money moment. That's when you place the penny on your knee and you watch it float. Yeah. It's kind of dangerous, probably. Well, it depends. We shouldn't recommend that. Let's not. Okay. And then Chuck, so you've got the interplay between you and the car.

Yeah. These two forces acting on you, gravity and acceleration. And then also, like you said, there's visual cues. Like the way that a roller coaster is designed is so that things are whooshing past you. Right. Like you're taken into a concrete bunker all of a sudden and you feel like you're about to smack your head on it. Right. So you have not just the physical feelings, but you have empirical sensations of just going really fast in a very dangerous way. Yeah. A very dangerous place. Yeah. See, my fact of the show, actually, it's not the stomach, but the fact that you, as a person, your body cannot feel velocity. And it sounds weird to say that, but if you think about it, if you're on the bullet train and you're standing on the bullet train, you're not going,

whoa, pushing back toward the back of the train. Yeah. The only thing your body can feel is a change in velocity, which is acceleration. Yes. And they use that constantly on a roller coaster. Yeah. That's what they're doing. They're taking advantage of the visual cues and gravity and acceleration and kinetic and potential energy and they're giving you the right of your life. Nice. So if you don't close your eyes on a roller coaster because you're missing out on a very important aspect of it is what I say. Yeah. Or close your eyes. I have a picture. I used to, I don't know where it is now, of me on the Millennium coaster at Cedar Point. And it was like one of the official pictures they take of you after the scariest hill. And my eyes are

wide open, but my body is clearly vacant. I've left my body for that moment. Did you evacuate your bowels? No. No. I evacuated my body, but not my bowels. Okay. That's good. I wouldn't admit it to bad. I won't get a Cedar Point with you so bad now. Maybe someday. Okay. I mean, you've gotten in-laws up there. Yeah. Yeah. So is this safe? I mean, I know that you have a heights thing, so that's probably where a lot of that comes from. But is it safe? Are you in danger? It depends. You know, last, well, no, really, last week, there was a three-year-old that died at a place called Go Bananas in Chicago. Really? And yeah, it looks like there was basically a three-year-old shouldn't have been on this ride. Yeah. But it doesn't look like there was any kind

of roller coaster error. The kid crawled out from underneath the safety bar, fell out, fell like three or four feet, which wasn't bad, but fell onto the track and was hit by another car. So it does happen, but this is so infrequent. And that was such a freak occurrence that to answer your question, the way you wanted to hear it, yes, it's safe. Well, we have some stats here from the article, Josh. In 2006, a little old, 335 million people visited theme parks, and 6,500 of them sought medical attention that year. But as Tom Harris points out, these are people who visited theme parks. So for the whole theme park, not just roller coasters. It could have slipped on the way into the bathroom. They could have gotten in a fist fight with Captain America or something. That's

right. So that's total injuries or total people seeking medical attention. Only 130 of those required overnight hospitalization. And so that means your risk of serious injury just by entering a park is one in 25 million. Your chance of a fatal injury is one in 1.5 billion. And your chances of a fatal injury in a car crash are 15 and 10,000. And now is this car crash. So yeah, go feel safe in your car now. Clearly, the most interesting thing you can do is get in a car. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana.

Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that will piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save a retirement. Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet. Roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two. But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast, How to Money, can help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now, and we want to see you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions, interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about.

Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week. And we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money has got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay. I wonder though how much of that obviously has to do with the fact that we don't ride around

in roller coasters that frequently. Oh, yeah. We ride around in our cars pretty, pretty frequently. So I wonder if you took the time, you know, spent and made it comparable. What the, like how much that margin would narrow. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Well, in 2003 and the Brain Injury Institute of America studied brain fatalities and they found that it's, these people had something going on beforehand. So it's not the ride. People who suffered death from head injuries or brain injuries from roller coaster. Yeah. They had undetected brain conditions already in place. So our advice is, you know, those little warnings that you see, like if you have bad back or you're pregnant or you're a high blood

pressure, those aren't just there willy-nilly. You should take heed and don't go on the ride if you fit any of those descriptors. I feel so bad for that family in Chicago. I do too. That's awful. Um, I have some world records. Should we go over those? That's a rough transition. It was. Yeah, let's do it. Tracy Kason. Um, tallest is the King of Ka at New Jersey, 400 and 56 feet total with a drop of 428 feet, 90 degree angle. Yeah. I saw it. Oh yeah. And if you are a roller coaster person or you are thrilled by roller coasters or terrified by them, you can go on to YouTube and type in a roller coaster name or just roller coaster. Yeah. And people love to make little videos from like the first car of like the roller coaster

ride. And it's pretty much a POV experience. Very shaky one. Yeah. Um, the fastest is in Dubai. That is at Ferrari world and the ride is the Formula Rosa and that goes 149 miles an hour. Which is really fast. If you're not used to going that fast. Which I'm not. There are 12 coasters worldwide Josh with a descent angle equal to or greater than 90 degrees. I think the millennium coaster has one. They go up to 97 degrees. You're actually like you're inverted. You're angled back the other way. And the millennium has a safety bar and that's it. Oh, is that it? Yeah. So you really feel like you're about to just flip right out of the car. It's terrifying. The largest woody is the son of the beast. I think you mentioned that one. The screen machine in here in Atlanta

was for a very short time in the early 70s. It's like a hundred feet tall. And the fastest woody is 78 miles an hour. And that's also son of the beast. And the oldest. A wheezing sound as it comes into the station. The oldest one is leap the dips. It's called leap the dips. That sounds like an old timey roller coaster. Oh yeah. Step right up and leap the dips. Notice that Lake Mont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania and it was built in 1902 and it's still running. That's another one in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the heart and soul of this country's historic roller coasters. I just decreed that. Okay. So again, you can go onto YouTube, check out some pretty cool first person viewpoint roller coaster rides. Also, one of my favorite things to do is to look up photo

spreads of abandoned amusement parks. Oh yeah. There's some really cool ones across the world. Creepy. And then you should. I strongly recommend it. And I think you can join me in that. Right, Chuck? Yes. I'm going to read this article. How roller coasters work. It has an entire section on how the loops work. Physics. Chuck and I opted not to cover that. But there's a whole bunch of pretty cool stuff and cool pictures. Yeah. And they're in a little animation too. Yeah. It's just a quality article. Yeah. So before you hit the park this summer, you can bore your friends to death by telling them all about how it works. Exactly. You can type in roller coasters, two words in the handy search bar at howstuffworks.com to get that article. And I guess that brings up

listener mail. Josh, we're going to call this for a good cause from an old friend. This is from my friend Jason Jenkins. And he lives in Japan. Married a Japanese lady. I see the one you're talking about in the Nuclear Meltdown podcast. Yeah. Okay. My only friend in Japan. Although we have lots of podcast fans here and you are like friends as well. Well, so Jason writes in Jinky is what we call him. Jinky here. Hope all is well, buddy. Despite what you may have read, we are all alive and not turning into an outtake from the latest biohazard sequel. Not 100% back to normal, of course, but Tokyo and 90% of the country is much more work a day life than a lot of the media make it out to be. I could go on, but I'll leave it

at there. I write to pitch a possible interesting podcast or article for the site. Have you heard of Quakebook? Have you heard of Quakebook? I have. You want to describe what it is? Basically an expat, an American expat, I think British British expat in Japan got a hold of some tweets and basically turned, I guess, on the ground social media coverage of the Quake and the tsunami and the nuclear crisis into an ebook. Yeah. Basically like a coffee table ebook. He got this whole, he got like, I think he used like Twitter to enlist somebody to do translations and it just became this huge massive grassroots push to kind of document this from the people's view, right? Yeah. And it was titled two minutes and 46 seconds after the quake struck. So like

immediately this thing was launched without even probably knowing what they were launching at the time. Yeah. But now there are 30,000 words of short personal accounts and the like from 200 writers, editors, designers, artists that have all chipped in for this thing. Yeah. Very cool. So Jason goes on to say, amazing project, completely crowd sourced through Twitter and then pitched to Amazon who agreed to waive their usual cut. So all of the money made by this ebook goes straight to Japan Red Cross. It's fantastic. 100%. He said, no one made a sin on it, completely volunteer. These guys went from an initial idea to writing to production to product in one month. It's really astounding if you think about it. Several famous, semi-famous peeps contributed,

William Gibson, Yoko Ono, Barry Eisler, Jake Adelstein, etc. I'm not directly involved with it, but a lot of my friends are either in writing their stories or helping to put the book together, editing layout, PR, etc. We are all trying to get quake book as much attention as possible. And that is from my buddy Jason Jenkins and I'm going to blog about it and send it out on Facebook. And if you want to support Japan Red Cross, which you should, then go out and buy quake book because you know it's 100% the profits are going there. Where do they get it? Chuck Amazon? Yeah. I mean, I'd say that's a good place. Or just search quake book on your favorite search engine. There's quake book, Twitter feeds and Facebook and all that stuff. And it's a great way to

support the cause over there. Very cool. Good for you Chuck. Good for Janky. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have to meet Janky one day? I'm sure I will. Maybe in one of your trips to Japan? I'm sure I will. We'll run into each other. Maybe so. Tokyo's a small town. Yeah, I'll get into Tokyo and just be like, Janky. You never know. Janky. That's it. All right. If you have a picture of yourself terrified on a roller coaster, we want to see it. You can go post it on our Facebook page. That's facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet it to us. S-Y-S-K. All right. Podcast. All right. Yeah. Jeez. And then of course, there's always old-fashioned email, which we still always love to get, but don't necessarily respond to every single one because Chuck's getting up there in

years. You can send it to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jackmove or being

robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's today's Fortnite weather report. iHeartland has been hit by a major blizzard. The snow has turned iHeartland and Fortnite into a winter wonderland with new festive games, including a winter themed escape room, a holiday obstacle course, ice skating, hidden holiday gifts and more. Look out for upcoming special events from your favorite artists and podcasters all month along with scavenger hunts and new how fan are you challenges. So embrace the holidays at iHeartland in Fortnite. Head to iHeartRadio.com slash iHeartland today.