There's a reason for that-and it can be explained by basic physics. And that's the best-when you think you're going to go over, but you don't." "As you go down around some of the bends, you think you're going to go over the edge, but you don't. "And there are lots of turns," adds 14-year-old water park enthusiast Benn Calhoun. (Read: "Beyond Disney" in the March 2007 edition of National Geographic magazine.)Īnd the best types of rides are the ones where things are unexpected. The force of gravity gets riders from the top to the bottom. You can think of a waterslide as being like a rollercoaster-only wet, and with no safety belt or track. (Think log flume rides, without the log flume.) Speed slides, on the other hand, plummet riders straight down a chute that delivers them to a pool. Serpentine slides constantly change directions as they take riders around a series of sharp curves. The start tub is the place where riders sit on a tube or mat before making their way down the slide. It's about to be a wet-and bumpy-ride.īefore we get into the nitty-gritty of how waterslides work, it's important to get a few terms straight. So we turned to some experts: the people who design water parks rides, a physicist with three small children, and two 14-year-old twins who are self-described "water park enthusiasts." (Related: "Water Park, Peru.") In the poignant coming-of-age story, 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James) escapes his complicated family life by working in a highly chlorinated summer water park, where he makes good friends and escapes his troubles by plummeting down slide after slide.Īt National Geographic, we enjoy a good waterslide (who doesn't?) but were also wondering just how they work-and how water parks use basic physics and engineering concepts to keep their 85 million annual riders safe. The waterslide even plays a starring role in the critically acclaimed summer movie The Way, Way Back, which opens this Friday. The once-simple backyard pool accessories-remember those light blue, 6-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) slides?-now have hairpin curves, exhilarating loops, and drops that span multiple stories. The Disney park is one of almost 2,000 water parks that have cropped up around the world in the past 30 years. Riders reach speeds of up to 60 miles (90 kilometers) per hour as they plummet down a free-fall slide with fake snowbanks on each side. It's not hard to see why: The 12-story waterslide has one of the tallest and fastest drops in the world. At the top of the Summit Plummet waterslide at Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach in Orlando, Florida-which stands some 120 feet (37 meters) above the ground-thrill seekers have been known to turn back.
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