FORUMS - COASTERFORCE
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Descent Speed...
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JoshC.
Strata Poster
I don't know of any official stats about it...but did a quick bit of maths/physics to have a look (apologises if I ramble on about the equations a bit too much...):
So basically, by conservation or energy, the gravitational potential energy (GPE) of the train at the top of top hat will equal the kinetic energy (KE) at the bottom of the track, plus some wasted energy (heat, noise, etc.).
GPE = mgh, where m is mass of the train, g is acceleration due to gravity, approximately 9.8m/s^2, and h is the height of the drop.
KE = m(v^2)/2, where v is the speed at the bottom of the drop.
So, ignoring the wasted energy, we can set GPE = KE; i.e: mgh = m(v^2)/2 - which means the weight of the train has negligible effect to the final speed. So, the max speed will be squareroot(2*g*h) meters by second.
For Stealth, the height of the drop is roughly 58m. So, the max speed is about 33.7 meters per second, which is about 75mph. However, that's a bit of an overestimate, since we're assume the train makes no noise going down, there's no heat between the wheels and the track caused by friction, etc. So the likely figure is probably closer to 70mph
For Kingda Ka, the height of the drop is just over 127m, so the max speed is about 50 meters per second, which is about 112mph. Again, that's a bit of an overestimate, so you're probably look at somewhere between 100-105mph. Top Thrill Dragster's drop is about 122m, so probably is around the 100mph mark on the drop.
So yeah, if my calculations are okay, the speed of the drop is only about 10-15% slower than the launch's speed (depending on the height of the drop of course!).
So basically, by conservation or energy, the gravitational potential energy (GPE) of the train at the top of top hat will equal the kinetic energy (KE) at the bottom of the track, plus some wasted energy (heat, noise, etc.).
GPE = mgh, where m is mass of the train, g is acceleration due to gravity, approximately 9.8m/s^2, and h is the height of the drop.
KE = m(v^2)/2, where v is the speed at the bottom of the drop.
So, ignoring the wasted energy, we can set GPE = KE; i.e: mgh = m(v^2)/2 - which means the weight of the train has negligible effect to the final speed. So, the max speed will be squareroot(2*g*h) meters by second.
For Stealth, the height of the drop is roughly 58m. So, the max speed is about 33.7 meters per second, which is about 75mph. However, that's a bit of an overestimate, since we're assume the train makes no noise going down, there's no heat between the wheels and the track caused by friction, etc. So the likely figure is probably closer to 70mph
For Kingda Ka, the height of the drop is just over 127m, so the max speed is about 50 meters per second, which is about 112mph. Again, that's a bit of an overestimate, so you're probably look at somewhere between 100-105mph. Top Thrill Dragster's drop is about 122m, so probably is around the 100mph mark on the drop.
So yeah, if my calculations are okay, the speed of the drop is only about 10-15% slower than the launch's speed (depending on the height of the drop of course!).
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
I know Dragster gets to either the same or very close to the launch speed after the top hat.
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Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk
