Engineers found that a circular loop caused riders to experience the greatest force at the bottom of the loop, when the cars were moving fastest. This resulted in riders experiencing whiplash and neck injuries. This caused loops in roller coasters to be abandoned in 1901, but they were brought back with the clothnoid loop shape in Revolution in 1976 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. A clothoid loop has a radius that is constantly changing, and can be observed in Figure 2 to better understand the following concepts. Clothoid loops allow two major things to occur, which result in the car making a successful loop. First, the smaller radius at the top of the loop allows cars that have lost some speed from traveling up the loop to maintain contact with the track. Second, the large radius at the bottom of the loop allows the car to enter the loop at a high enough speed to overcome the first hill without causing riders to experience excessive normal
Engineers found that a circular loop caused riders to experience the greatest force at the bottom of the loop, when the cars were moving fastest. This resulted in riders experiencing whiplash and neck injuries. This caused loops in roller coasters to be abandoned in 1901, but they were brought back with the clothnoid loop shape in Revolution in 1976 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. A clothoid loop has a radius that is constantly changing, and can be observed in Figure 2 to better understand the following concepts. Clothoid loops allow two major things to occur, which result in the car making a successful loop. First, the smaller radius at the top of the loop allows cars that have lost some speed from traveling up the loop to maintain contact with the track. Second, the large radius at the bottom of the loop allows the car to enter the loop at a high enough speed to overcome the first hill without causing riders to experience excessive normal