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

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast on Josh Clark with Me as always is
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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, And this is stuff you should know.
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Speaker 1: The audio podcast that is now transcribed and available on
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Speaker 1: the blogs. It there. Yes, the deaf and heart of
0:30
Speaker 1: hearing community is ready to go. Yes, Josh, and that
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Speaker 1: is exciting. Expand the group of people that can get
0:38
Speaker 1: on the train. You know what I'm saying. I think so,
0:43
Speaker 1: I hope. So you're talking about listen, getting like to
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Speaker 1: experience a podcast and then yes, I know what you're
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Speaker 1: talking about. Um, Chuck, are you ready to do this? Yeah?
0:55
Speaker 1: Have you ever? My arms are up? You're been on
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Speaker 1: a roller coaster? I am a roller coaster guy. I
1:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't call myself one of those guys you know who
1:06
Speaker 1: like make special trips to states just to ride the coaster,
1:10
Speaker 1: but I've always been a fan. There are plenty of
1:12
Speaker 1: people who do that, and not just the States. Like
1:14
Speaker 1: Japan is big with roller coasters as well, and um
1:19
Speaker 1: do they have huge roller coasters? I could totally see
1:21
Speaker 1: one of them is on the list. Um I didn't
1:24
Speaker 1: get the list. Well, I can't wait to hear it
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Speaker 1: with the other few hundred thousand people at the same
1:31
Speaker 1: time who are listening to this. Um chuck. I am
1:35
Speaker 1: not a roller coaster guy, despite being from originally Ohio,
1:39
Speaker 1: which is the home of arguably the greatest amusement park
1:43
Speaker 1: in the world, Cedar Points. Yeah, Sandusky, Yeah, right there
1:46
Speaker 1: on the water. It's nice. It is very nice. On
1:48
Speaker 1: the other side, you have the Breakers Hotel Cataba Island,
1:52
Speaker 1: where my family vacationed uh for many years when I
1:55
Speaker 1: was a kid, um, and we would go to see
1:58
Speaker 1: your point pretty frequently. But I'm a very young age
2:01
Speaker 1: I was terrified of roller coasters because let me paint
2:07
Speaker 1: you a picture. When I was I think three, my
2:11
Speaker 1: dad said, Josh, here we are at Disney World. Why
2:16
Speaker 1: don't you let me take you on this great ride
2:18
Speaker 1: called Space Mountain, which now is very tame when you
2:22
Speaker 1: look at it. It's not tame to me. I've since
2:25
Speaker 1: been on it and it's still not tame alright, even
2:28
Speaker 1: as a from a three year old to a twentysomething,
2:30
Speaker 1: it's no difference because I've been completely spoiled on roller coasters. Now,
2:36
Speaker 1: I was a very young kid. My dad was taking
2:39
Speaker 1: me on Space Mountain. I had no idea what to expect,
2:42
Speaker 1: and I'm damaged. Goods Now, really did that just put
2:45
Speaker 1: a dent in it for you? It did. Now, if
2:47
Speaker 1: I actually go, if I can get the courage up
2:50
Speaker 1: to actually go on a roller coaster, I have just
2:53
Speaker 1: an amazing time. Yeah. Sure, but it's the standing in
2:56
Speaker 1: line and going up the first hill that, like I could,
3:00
Speaker 1: I can't do it. I can't do it. Chuck. Yeah,
3:02
Speaker 1: I had a similar experience and that I would not
3:05
Speaker 1: ride roller coasters. But I really enjoyed the park. Six
3:08
Speaker 1: Flags obviously here in Georgia, and we had the family
3:10
Speaker 1: seasons pass every year. And it's at a certain point
3:13
Speaker 1: in age my father said, you know you're gonna go
3:16
Speaker 1: on these roller coasters if we're gonna pay for you
3:18
Speaker 1: to get in the park because we're and I used
3:21
Speaker 1: to hanging out with the banana splits. It's not worth
3:23
Speaker 1: the money that alone. Well, here's how bad it stunk
3:26
Speaker 1: for me is I would wait in line the whole
3:28
Speaker 1: time because I was with my family, and then when
3:30
Speaker 1: the time came, I would walk through the car to
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Speaker 1: the other side, and I used to have terrors that
3:35
Speaker 1: they would like I would slip and fall on the
3:37
Speaker 1: seat and the bar would come down and that was it.
3:40
Speaker 1: It's like a Scooby Doo theme park. Yeah, so he
3:43
Speaker 1: forced me to go on I think the Mine Mender,
3:45
Speaker 1: and I never looked back. I was like, thanks, Dad,
3:48
Speaker 1: that was awesome. That is really great. That's the exact
3:51
Speaker 1: opposite of my story, and that one came out really well. Yeah,
3:54
Speaker 1: so I like him now. Yeah. Sure, Uman's actually ruined
3:56
Speaker 1: on roller coasters because her dead took her on Space
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Speaker 1: Mountain as well. He pretended like he didn't know what
4:01
Speaker 1: was going on, you know, like he was freaking out,
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Speaker 1: and that's just ruined. Right, So our kids never going
4:07
Speaker 1: to go on a roller coaster because both of his
4:10
Speaker 1: or her parents are gonna be too nervous about that.
4:12
Speaker 1: Plus the older you get. I mean I went to
4:14
Speaker 1: see her point a couple of years ago, and it's
4:17
Speaker 1: harder when you get a little older. The line seem longer,
4:20
Speaker 1: the heat is more oppressive, and these roller coasters red
4:24
Speaker 1: nicky yea and these roller coasters now are like astronaut training.
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Speaker 1: It's I mean I can take a lot, but I
4:30
Speaker 1: would get off of some of these, thinking, man, we're
4:32
Speaker 1: talking about the top thrilled dragster. Oh, they've got a
4:35
Speaker 1: bunch of there. That kind of made me feel queasy
4:37
Speaker 1: and it was fun, but it also tested the limits
4:39
Speaker 1: of my intestinal fortitude. Nice. Well, let's talk about this.
4:43
Speaker 1: I have to say, um, this, this um article by
4:47
Speaker 1: Tom Harris, who's on par with the Grabster in my opinion,
4:52
Speaker 1: um he uh. He basically breaks down exactly what's going
4:56
Speaker 1: on on a roller coaster. And I was kind of
4:58
Speaker 1: hoping that understanding this would make me feel or about it.
5:00
Speaker 1: I don't think it's had any effect that at all,
5:02
Speaker 1: but at the very least, now you and I can
5:05
Speaker 1: explain what the deal is with roller coasters. Let's start, Chuck,
5:10
Speaker 1: Let's let's take it back to sixteenth century Russia. Who
5:15
Speaker 1: would have thunk it That's where it all began. Josh,
5:17
Speaker 1: you're right, Um. Originally they had these ice slides, very
5:21
Speaker 1: steep wooden slides covered in ice. You got a little
5:23
Speaker 1: sled and I imagine it looks sort of like the
5:27
Speaker 1: long straight water slide that they have today. Or I
5:30
Speaker 1: took it like the ski jump, but without the jump
5:32
Speaker 1: part at the bottom, you know. But it wasn't just
5:36
Speaker 1: a sled. These things would these slides were covered in ice.
5:41
Speaker 1: The track was, but then at times you could also
5:44
Speaker 1: write a block of ice. So you can imagine some
5:48
Speaker 1: crazy sixteenth century Russians riding a block of ice down
5:51
Speaker 1: a seventy ft slope into a sand pit, loaded on vodka. Yeah.
5:56
Speaker 1: Probably that's that is all roller coaster historian degree. The
6:00
Speaker 1: beginning of roller coasters, right, yeah, And the next step
6:04
Speaker 1: is a little, uh, somewhat disputed. But the best story
6:08
Speaker 1: we found was that the French got on board and
6:11
Speaker 1: said we're gonna build one of these. But in France
6:14
Speaker 1: it got hot, the ice melted, so they said, well,
6:17
Speaker 1: let's just wax the wood. And then they said, hey,
6:20
Speaker 1: let's just put wheels on it. And all of a
6:22
Speaker 1: sudden you had a wheel roller coaster in eighteen seventeen.
6:26
Speaker 1: First one, yeah, the first one was the Russian Mountains
6:30
Speaker 1: of Belleville on France said they ruses Bellevide. Yeah, um,
6:36
Speaker 1: and uh, like you said, eighteen seventeen, Yeah, that was
6:39
Speaker 1: introduced and from that point on that was kind of
6:41
Speaker 1: like the explosion of um modern Well, I don't want
6:46
Speaker 1: to say explosion of modern roller coasters, because it took
6:48
Speaker 1: a good thirty forty fifty years, but after that it exploded, right, Yeah, Yes,
6:55
Speaker 1: the United States in Pennsylvania in the mid eight hundreds
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Speaker 1: had the first one in the US. And it was
7:01
Speaker 1: sort of like they still have these two that go
7:03
Speaker 1: up the side of a mountain. I know. I've been
7:04
Speaker 1: on the Incline Railway in Tennessee. Yeah, that's sort of
7:07
Speaker 1: what it's like, terrifying to it. Basically was an old
7:09
Speaker 1: coal line that they would take you up in a
7:11
Speaker 1: cart slowly, and they called it a scenic tour, and
7:14
Speaker 1: then I get the impression they would let you down
7:16
Speaker 1: a little more quickly, yes, adding to the thrill. And
7:20
Speaker 1: this was like eighteen fifty. It was the mid nineteenth century,
7:23
Speaker 1: and it cost a dollar and I went and did
7:25
Speaker 1: I did the west a calcula and two thousand, ten
7:29
Speaker 1: dollars A. Well, I don't know, man, I mean that
7:32
Speaker 1: this is it. Well, no other thing even resembling a
7:35
Speaker 1: roller coaster in the United States. You're gonna pay twenty
7:39
Speaker 1: five bucks. And it probably either that or playing Russian routlette.
7:43
Speaker 1: They probably ensured it was rich people too, which rich
7:46
Speaker 1: people in old coal cars. So UM from that point on,
7:51
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania apparently was a UM has had like the long
7:54
Speaker 1: standing tradition, longstanding history of roller coasters because they had
7:58
Speaker 1: that called the mouk Chunk switched back Railway that was
8:02
Speaker 1: that first UM roller coaster you described, and then they
8:05
Speaker 1: had real ones like Kenny Wood Park there one of
8:08
Speaker 1: the first amusement parks. Yeah, it's still there. And then
8:10
Speaker 1: of course the world famous Coney Island. And then the
8:13
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties happened and there are as many rides um
8:17
Speaker 1: as as many rides I don't know roller coasters, but
8:20
Speaker 1: there were as many rides in operation in nineteen states
8:26
Speaker 1: as there are as there are roller coasters today. Uh yeah,
8:30
Speaker 1: so they replaced the old obviously. Well yeah, that's part
8:33
Speaker 1: of it. But at the same time, UM, you would think,
8:35
Speaker 1: like you just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger,
8:37
Speaker 1: and there'll be more and more and more. But the
8:39
Speaker 1: Great Depression of World War two kind of cut the
8:42
Speaker 1: head off of roller coasters in amusement parks for a while.
8:44
Speaker 1: It wasn't ntil the seventies and eighties that you know,
8:47
Speaker 1: the the the advent of the modern roller coaster that
8:50
Speaker 1: you know and love today and I hate really began. Yeah,
8:55
Speaker 1: so you don't even go to parks probably then, right,
8:58
Speaker 1: I went to Dollywood. That was fun, but we did.
9:01
Speaker 1: We wouldn't ride that roller coaster. That's pretty low stress,
9:05
Speaker 1: I would think, as far as because there's so much
9:07
Speaker 1: other stuff to do. It's no cedar point, no point.
9:10
Speaker 1: It's just like shame, humility, shame, you know, every every turn.
9:15
Speaker 1: Uh So, should we talk about some of the components
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Speaker 1: of the train itself and how it works? I think
9:20
Speaker 1: we should, because really I was surprised at how um
9:24
Speaker 1: ridiculously simple this is. Yeah, and you know what I
9:26
Speaker 1: didn't know, and maybe I'm a dummy, but I didn't
9:29
Speaker 1: realize that almost all of the ride is based on
9:33
Speaker 1: just for momentum and so it's acceleration and gravity, yeah,
9:39
Speaker 1: all those things combined. But it's not like there's points
9:41
Speaker 1: along the track that like, we're slowing down, we need
9:44
Speaker 1: to give you an extra magnetic boost at this point. Yes,
9:48
Speaker 1: it's all found in that initial um first hill, yes,
9:52
Speaker 1: which you're carried up the hill many times by a
9:55
Speaker 1: chain lift. You know that sound. That sound probably strikes
9:58
Speaker 1: fear in your or the slower versions even worse. Yes,
10:03
Speaker 1: and that is uh, it's sort of like a bike
10:05
Speaker 1: chain on a loop, and there's a a motor that's
10:08
Speaker 1: just kind of Turning's a gear at the top and
10:10
Speaker 1: the motor at the bottom, and you put onto it
10:12
Speaker 1: with it's something called a chain dog. It's basically a
10:14
Speaker 1: hook and it pulls you up the hill like on
10:17
Speaker 1: a conveyor bolt, and then releases you at the top
10:19
Speaker 1: and then physics does its thing right, and then another
10:23
Speaker 1: way to get up the hill is the catapult launch lift,
10:25
Speaker 1: which is um slightly more sophisticated. This is like, um,
10:28
Speaker 1: what was the name of the ride? Yeah, that was
10:31
Speaker 1: that I had an idea. Actually that might be magnetic. Yeah, well,
10:35
Speaker 1: there's there's basically two ways to do it. The linear
10:38
Speaker 1: induction motor produces magnets, right, and they are attracted to
10:43
Speaker 1: one another, and it's the motor is attached to the
10:46
Speaker 1: train cars um, and the motor is moving along the
10:49
Speaker 1: track because of these two magnetic fields that are attracted
10:51
Speaker 1: to one another, and it's pulling the train with it,
10:54
Speaker 1: and that can generate really high precise speeds all of
10:57
Speaker 1: a sudden, which I prefer being shot out of a
10:59
Speaker 1: can in on that Kingdom. And then another way to
11:02
Speaker 1: do it is to have two sets of wheels that
11:04
Speaker 1: are spinning really quickly that kind of grip the train
11:07
Speaker 1: cars and then shoot you up there too, you know,
11:10
Speaker 1: both massive acceleration. Initially I think I don't know what
11:13
Speaker 1: the number is, but zero to sixty and the blink
11:16
Speaker 1: of an eye, I think that is it the top
11:18
Speaker 1: speed or the top thrill drags. I think it's top
11:21
Speaker 1: thrill drags. Okay, so that one goes like to a
11:23
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty miles an hour and like a second
11:25
Speaker 1: or two. Yeah, it's a a top speed of a
11:28
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty and you must get that right out
11:30
Speaker 1: of the gate um. And then lastly, the really big
11:34
Speaker 1: component um that operates roller coasters, or the brakes. Yeah,
11:38
Speaker 1: and they're not so different than any kind of disc
11:40
Speaker 1: brake in theory. Um. Basically it clamps down on these
11:44
Speaker 1: metal fins and the pads slow it down. Yeah, when
11:49
Speaker 1: the little sixteen year old pimple wee face kid pushes
11:51
Speaker 1: the button. Actually it's all computers. But yeah, don't scare people.
11:54
Speaker 1: I like to think that your life is in that
11:56
Speaker 1: that that boy's hands, right, that that one teenager from
11:59
Speaker 1: the sin since I forgot to push the button. So those,
12:03
Speaker 1: those are the components of the Those are the moving parts, right,
12:07
Speaker 1: But then you also have the track itself, which is
12:09
Speaker 1: basically broken down into two categories. You have steel coasters
12:13
Speaker 1: and you have wooden coasters woodies, I think, as they're
12:17
Speaker 1: affectionately known by enthusiasts, by sickos. Actually I don't know
12:21
Speaker 1: if I think. I think they're called woodies. I might
12:23
Speaker 1: have just made that up. So obviously the woodies are
12:25
Speaker 1: those big old school ones you still see. I don't
12:27
Speaker 1: even think they make wooden ones at all anymore, do they?
12:30
Speaker 1: I don't know. Because the tallest one is the son
12:32
Speaker 1: of the Beast at King's Island or King's Dominion, And um,
12:37
Speaker 1: that one is old. That's like eighties. Yeah, And I
12:40
Speaker 1: would imagine they keep topping them if they were going
12:42
Speaker 1: to keep building them. Well, so the deal obviously, you know,
12:45
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure
12:47
Speaker 1: this out. There's not nearly as much flex in a
12:50
Speaker 1: stiff wood planks, so they don't do tons of twisting
12:53
Speaker 1: and turning. It's really just about up and down, up
12:55
Speaker 1: and down. Plus height is a big factor as well.
12:58
Speaker 1: I think it high that the Son of the Beasts
13:01
Speaker 1: is about half as tall as the highest steel coaster.
13:03
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Um, and it's I would imagine expense is
13:08
Speaker 1: kind of a big deal. Maintenances is huge because these
13:11
Speaker 1: are basically like railroad ties, you know, every few feet
13:15
Speaker 1: and they're interlocking and supporting each hill and twist and turn.
13:19
Speaker 1: They're just inherently more dangerous because they're less precise. Yeah,
13:22
Speaker 1: but for nostalgia, you can't beat it, that is true. Then,
13:25
Speaker 1: of course you have the steel track, and these are
13:28
Speaker 1: the ones where you suddenly can go upside down on
13:30
Speaker 1: a corkscrew and you can dangle from it and basically
13:35
Speaker 1: just come as close to death as possible. Uh, yes, Josh.
13:39
Speaker 1: Nineteen fifties is when tubular steel first made its debut.
13:43
Speaker 1: And uh, here you've got wheels that are made of
13:46
Speaker 1: polyurethane or nylon, sort of more like a skateboard wheel
13:50
Speaker 1: and fire. Yeah, and they generally have like wheels on top,
13:54
Speaker 1: wheels on the side, wheels on the bottom, and it's
13:57
Speaker 1: just clamped down on that sucker. Yes, very well. Yeah.
14:01
Speaker 1: Then there's other ways that the train car can be
14:05
Speaker 1: attached to the track. Um, you can have a suspended coaster,
14:10
Speaker 1: which like hangs down from a track above and it's
14:14
Speaker 1: not um, it's not fused, so you can like kind
14:17
Speaker 1: of turn or flip out to the side. Are a
14:20
Speaker 1: flip out in general? Um? And then there's the inverted coaster,
14:23
Speaker 1: which is the same thing, except it's it's fused to
14:25
Speaker 1: the to the track. It's not going from side to side.
14:28
Speaker 1: It's frigid. Yes, it is the word I'm looking for, right, Yes,
14:32
Speaker 1: what else you've got? The the flying that's when you're
14:37
Speaker 1: in a seated position, but your first Yeah, but you're
14:41
Speaker 1: rotated up and I think that's the one that six flags.
14:44
Speaker 1: You're like sitting flat and then they pull you up
14:47
Speaker 1: and backwards until you are completely ninety degrees facing straight down,
14:51
Speaker 1: and then they'll let you go when you start from there, right,
14:53
Speaker 1: there's also ones where you're sitting and then like the
14:55
Speaker 1: car actually reconfigures so you're flat, so your chest is
15:00
Speaker 1: parallel to the ground as if you're flying. Right, Yes, Okay,
15:04
Speaker 1: is that the fourth dimension? I don't think. I think
15:06
Speaker 1: fourth dimension would be maybe, um, like if you have
15:10
Speaker 1: a suspended coaster and it was on a ball bearing joint,
15:15
Speaker 1: so when you went around a curve. You could actually
15:17
Speaker 1: like do a three sixty and kick out to the side.
15:20
Speaker 1: It's not just forward, back up down the fourth dimension
15:24
Speaker 1: are they horrible? No, it's it's basically, um, you're sitting
15:28
Speaker 1: in a in a seat that's like a wing that
15:31
Speaker 1: is on the outside of the tracks. You have the
15:32
Speaker 1: track in the center and these two little wings on
15:34
Speaker 1: each side, And as you're going through these loops, your
15:37
Speaker 1: car itself, your seat itself is actually performing loops as well,
15:42
Speaker 1: sometimes in the opposite direction of the loop you're currently in.
15:45
Speaker 1: It sounds awful. Um, that sounds like also what you
15:48
Speaker 1: just described as um as a pipeline uh coaster as well,
15:54
Speaker 1: like the tube, the steel tube is going in down
15:57
Speaker 1: the middle of the car. The fourth dimension is just
15:59
Speaker 1: an extra spin on the pipeline design, right spin literally Yeah,
16:03
Speaker 1: I didn't even mean that. And then of course there's
16:05
Speaker 1: stand up, the traditional sit down stand up you like those?
16:10
Speaker 1: I think I've only been on one and I liked it. Yeah,
16:13
Speaker 1: there's the locknus I think King's Island. Yeah, yeah, I
16:18
Speaker 1: don't know too much for you. I just didn't add
16:20
Speaker 1: much of it, Like I have to stand up all day.
16:22
Speaker 1: I go on a roller coaster, so I can sit
16:24
Speaker 1: for a while for my money. That the ones where
16:26
Speaker 1: you hang uh hang down in the seat, Like if
16:28
Speaker 1: you sit on the outside front row of those, it's
16:30
Speaker 1: just like it feels like you're flying. Yeah, a lot
16:32
Speaker 1: of fun. Yeah, I've not been on one of those,
16:34
Speaker 1: probably never will. Um. And then of course there's bob
16:37
Speaker 1: sled wheeled trains on it you shape track, probably the
16:40
Speaker 1: most dangerous and old timing of all. I would think
16:43
Speaker 1: basically like the retro Russian sled thing, except that the
16:49
Speaker 1: black advice. That's right. Okay, so there you got. There's
16:51
Speaker 1: a roller coasters. Those are all the parts moving and
16:54
Speaker 1: otherwise it's physics time. Now it is physics time, so
16:57
Speaker 1: chuck too. Basically, a roller coaster ride is an interplay
17:01
Speaker 1: of two forces. You have gravity, the downward pulled gravity,
17:07
Speaker 1: and the force of acceleration. Yeah, acceleration to me is
17:11
Speaker 1: where it all happens. Okay, I mean they're all actually
17:13
Speaker 1: working together, along with the visual cues, which we'll get
17:16
Speaker 1: to is really what makes it happen. But the acceleration
17:19
Speaker 1: to me is where you get your your rush. And
17:23
Speaker 1: and this is physics, but it's actually pretty interesting because
17:26
Speaker 1: we can explain things like the feeling of your stomach
17:29
Speaker 1: leaving your body and not kind of thing. So don't
17:30
Speaker 1: go away, so chuck um too. To gain momentum, to
17:36
Speaker 1: generate speed velocity, forward momentum inertia, I think is what
17:41
Speaker 1: it's called. Right. Um. You just about every roller coaster
17:46
Speaker 1: has at first hill, right, Yeah, that gets you going.
17:49
Speaker 1: It's got always got to be the tallest one, right um. Yes,
17:52
Speaker 1: And when you're at that point, you are at the
17:54
Speaker 1: peak of what's called potential energy. As you're going up
17:57
Speaker 1: the hill, you're you're increasing potential energy until you crest
18:01
Speaker 1: the hill and gravity takes over, pulling you downward, right.
18:06
Speaker 1: And at that point, your potential energy is converted to
18:09
Speaker 1: kinetic energy, which is that downward momentum. That's right. So
18:14
Speaker 1: as you go further and further down the hill, you
18:16
Speaker 1: lose potential energy, you gain kinetic energy. And then every
18:19
Speaker 1: successive hill after that takes advantage of a constant change
18:24
Speaker 1: between kinetic and potential energy to keep your speed going,
18:27
Speaker 1: to get it going faster, to slow you down. Um.
18:30
Speaker 1: And that's how the roller coaster stays going as quickly
18:34
Speaker 1: as it does throughout the whole ride, and it stays
18:37
Speaker 1: in motion. Mr Isaac Newton had a little rule, let's
18:40
Speaker 1: call it a law, first law of motion, that something
18:43
Speaker 1: in motion tends to stay in motion. And that's what's
18:47
Speaker 1: going on here. And you know, the roller coasters are
18:49
Speaker 1: precisely designed, like you want to go down that first
18:53
Speaker 1: hill and go up the second hill and be like, oh,
18:56
Speaker 1: I couldn't quite make it, and then you're going back down,
18:59
Speaker 1: although the King car has been known to not be
19:02
Speaker 1: able to make it up that hill. What. Yeah, it
19:04
Speaker 1: happened to me once we did the first TV commercial
19:08
Speaker 1: for the King took. I was working on it. So
19:10
Speaker 1: we wrote it like a dozen times without anyone there,
19:14
Speaker 1: and a couple of times. And it may not do
19:16
Speaker 1: that anymore. They might have been working the kinks out.
19:18
Speaker 1: You get shot up straight up in the air, and
19:19
Speaker 1: you come back down and do it again. You know,
19:23
Speaker 1: they relaunch you. It may still happen. You have this
19:27
Speaker 1: look of terror, Josh has just fallen over. Sorry, you
19:31
Speaker 1: get some smelling salts, alright, so um geez, okay. See
19:35
Speaker 1: I love it though, because you get two shoots out
19:37
Speaker 1: of the gate, which is the most fun part. Yeah,
19:40
Speaker 1: I mean, I can see how you would appreciate that.
19:42
Speaker 1: I find that that's just awful. I wish you hadn't
19:44
Speaker 1: told me that. I'm never going on that. We never
19:46
Speaker 1: get um. Alright, So, like you said, object in motion
19:50
Speaker 1: tends to stay in motion, and um, there are opposing forces.
19:54
Speaker 1: But the track is any any roller coaster tracks going
19:57
Speaker 1: to be designed to take advantage of building up entil
20:00
Speaker 1: and then potential energy and then releasing it as kinetic. Right.
20:04
Speaker 1: So while this is happening, Um, you're you have acceleration,
20:08
Speaker 1: but you also have gravity, and gravity is constantly exerting
20:11
Speaker 1: a downward pressure on your body. The reason gravity is
20:15
Speaker 1: exerting that pressure is because, Chuck, did you know that
20:18
Speaker 1: the earth atmosphere actually has measurable weight and it's considerable. Okay,
20:24
Speaker 1: can I tell you what it is? Four close four
20:29
Speaker 1: point four one quadrillion tons, So that's four point it's
20:34
Speaker 1: four comma four one and then zeros that is that's
20:39
Speaker 1: that's a lot of weight. Um. Obviously it's not pressing
20:42
Speaker 1: down on you all at once, or else you would
20:44
Speaker 1: be crushed into oblivion or just pushing up. Right. Well,
20:48
Speaker 1: gravity is pushing down and you should conceivably if the
20:52
Speaker 1: Earth was um like a kind of a warm marshmallow,
20:56
Speaker 1: you go right into the center, but you don't because
20:59
Speaker 1: the earth isn't a warm marshmallow. So the ground actually
21:02
Speaker 1: presses back up. Right. There's pressure from the from the
21:06
Speaker 1: um resistance created by the ground, and that's the sensation
21:11
Speaker 1: of weight exactly, because the the bones and your feet
21:15
Speaker 1: press up to the bones on your leg and etcetera, etcetera,
21:18
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you feel like you have
21:20
Speaker 1: a little bit of weight to you right, Yes, so
21:23
Speaker 1: that's the feeling of gravity. Yes, Then acceleration has its
21:27
Speaker 1: own for has its own feeling. Yeah, And that's my
21:29
Speaker 1: favorite because that's when your body and it's interesting because
21:33
Speaker 1: it's an opposite force acting on you. If you're being
21:35
Speaker 1: shot forward at a hundred miles an hour, you're going
21:38
Speaker 1: to be feeling like you're being pushed backward, right, And
21:41
Speaker 1: with both gravity and with acceleration, you feel the opposite,
21:47
Speaker 1: like you're being pressed down by gravity, but you feel
21:50
Speaker 1: the resistance from the earth. Yes, because you're a nurse.
21:52
Speaker 1: Is different than your little train car that you're in,
21:54
Speaker 1: and well that's the same, Yes, it's the same. With
21:57
Speaker 1: acceleration and gravity, you feel the opposite feeling. So like
21:59
Speaker 1: you said, when you're being shot forward, it feels like
22:02
Speaker 1: you're being pressed back in your seat. That's actually your
22:04
Speaker 1: seat pressing on your back, which I just that's the
22:08
Speaker 1: fact of this roller coaster podcast. That's great. Actually, I
22:12
Speaker 1: think we'll get to the mind with the stomach thing. Okay,
22:15
Speaker 1: And then similarly, Chuck, when when the roller coaster um
22:18
Speaker 1: slows down, you feel like, say, the harness or the
22:21
Speaker 1: safety bar in front of you pressing into you, right,
22:24
Speaker 1: So you're feeling the opposite sensation, like the bottom of
22:26
Speaker 1: the hill, let's say, is when you'll feel most heavy
22:29
Speaker 1: quote and we're using air quotes usually say that, but
22:32
Speaker 1: I stole it, right. Um. The the other reason for
22:35
Speaker 1: the sensations that you feel is that you're in the
22:37
Speaker 1: car and the car is being acted on in its
22:40
Speaker 1: own way that's different than the way you're being acted on.
22:44
Speaker 1: So there's not just an an interplay between these forces,
22:47
Speaker 1: but there's an interplay between you and the car, like
22:50
Speaker 1: the seat pushing on you, the harness pushing on you,
22:53
Speaker 1: or maybe even feeling like you're you're lifting up right,
22:57
Speaker 1: So talk about that. Yeah, that is the cool waitless
23:00
Speaker 1: feeling you get you reach a certain point eventually where
23:02
Speaker 1: acceleration and uh gravity balance each other out. So that's
23:08
Speaker 1: where you feel weightless and if you are uh well,
23:12
Speaker 1: actually should we get to the stomach part. Yeah, what's
23:15
Speaker 1: going on inside your body is You're not a solid
23:17
Speaker 1: chunk of wood. Most of us aren't. Most of us
23:21
Speaker 1: are comprised of different organs all placed in this gushy
23:24
Speaker 1: body inside. So these things are gonna react differently. You're
23:29
Speaker 1: different organs are gonna react uh different apart from one another.
23:32
Speaker 1: So if you have that weightless feeling, that is actually
23:35
Speaker 1: your stomach having less force exerted on it in a
23:37
Speaker 1: downward motion, So you feel like your stomach is going
23:40
Speaker 1: up because it kind of is. Yeah, And that's when
23:42
Speaker 1: you're coming down a hill and the force of acceleration
23:45
Speaker 1: and the force of gravity are equal. That's airtime, baby, Well.
23:49
Speaker 1: Airtime is when acceleration exceeds gravity and you feel like
23:52
Speaker 1: you you you don't just feel like you're being pulled upward.
23:56
Speaker 1: If you let go, you will lift up in your
23:58
Speaker 1: seat because again, the the forces are acting differently on
24:01
Speaker 1: the car than they are on you. And it's just
24:04
Speaker 1: like a cartoon where like your head stays here in
24:06
Speaker 1: your neck just elongates. Yeah, it's virtually the same thing.
24:09
Speaker 1: That's based on that principle that our bodies aren't solid,
24:12
Speaker 1: like you said, right, and that will happen obviously in
24:14
Speaker 1: a free fall ride or when you crest the top
24:16
Speaker 1: of a large hill, you'll feel like you're coming out
24:18
Speaker 1: of your seat because you are, right. So that's air
24:21
Speaker 1: time when you are actually out of your seat, right, Yes,
24:25
Speaker 1: that is the free fall. That's the money moment. That's
24:27
Speaker 1: when you place the penny on your knee and you
24:30
Speaker 1: watch it float. It's kind of dangerous. Probably, well that depends.
24:34
Speaker 1: We shouldn't recommend that. Let's not okay. And then um chuck.
24:38
Speaker 1: So you've got the interplay between you and the car,
24:40
Speaker 1: all these two forces acting on your gravity and acceleration um.
24:44
Speaker 1: And then also, like you said, there's visual cues, like
24:48
Speaker 1: the the way that a roller coaster designed is so
24:50
Speaker 1: that things are wishing past you, like you're taken into
24:53
Speaker 1: a concrete punker all of a sudden, you feel like
24:55
Speaker 1: you're about to smack your head on it, and that
24:58
Speaker 1: you so you have not just the um the physical feelings,
25:02
Speaker 1: but you have empirical sensations um of just going really
25:08
Speaker 1: fast in a very dangerous way. Yeah, are a very
25:11
Speaker 1: dangerous place. Yeah. See my fact of the show. Actually
25:14
Speaker 1: it's not the stomach, but the fact that you, as
25:16
Speaker 1: a person, your body cannot feel velocity. And it sounds
25:19
Speaker 1: weird to say that, but if you think about it,
25:21
Speaker 1: if you're on the bullet train and you're standing on
25:23
Speaker 1: the bullet train, you're not going whoa back toward the
25:28
Speaker 1: back of the train. The only thing your body can
25:30
Speaker 1: feel is a change in velocity, which is acceleration, and
25:34
Speaker 1: they use that constantly on a roller coach. Yeah, that's
25:36
Speaker 1: what they're doing. They're taking advantage of the visual cues
25:38
Speaker 1: and gravity and acceleration and kinectic and potential energy and
25:42
Speaker 1: they're giving you the right of your life. Yeah. So
25:47
Speaker 1: if you don't close your eyes on a roller coaster,
25:48
Speaker 1: because you're missing out on a very important aspect of it.
25:50
Speaker 1: Is what I say, Yeah, or close your eyes pants.
25:56
Speaker 1: I have a picture I used to I don't know
25:58
Speaker 1: where it is, not um of me on the Millennium
26:02
Speaker 1: coaster at Cedar Point, and like it was like one
26:05
Speaker 1: of the official like pictures they take you after the
26:08
Speaker 1: scariest hill and like my eyes are wide open, but
26:12
Speaker 1: I'm my body is clearly vacant, like I've I've left
26:15
Speaker 1: my body for that moment. Did you evacuate your bowels? No? No,
26:21
Speaker 1: I evacuated my body, but not my bowels. I would
26:25
Speaker 1: now admit to that. I get a cedar point with
26:28
Speaker 1: you so bad Now maybe someday. I mean, you've got
26:31
Speaker 1: in laws up there. So is this safe? I mean
26:36
Speaker 1: I know that you you you have a height sting,
26:37
Speaker 1: so that's probably where a lot of that comes from.
26:39
Speaker 1: But is it safe? Are you in danger? Uh? It
26:43
Speaker 1: depends you know less? Well? No, really, last week, Um,
26:47
Speaker 1: there was a three year old that died at a
26:49
Speaker 1: place called Go Bananas in Chicago, and uh, yeah, it
26:53
Speaker 1: looks like there was basically a three year old shouldn't
26:56
Speaker 1: have been on this ride. Um, but it doesn't look
26:59
Speaker 1: like there was any kind a roller coaster air. The
27:01
Speaker 1: kid crawled out from underneath the safety bar, fell out
27:05
Speaker 1: felt like three or four feet, which wasn't bad, but
27:07
Speaker 1: fell onto the track and was hit by another car.
27:10
Speaker 1: So it does happen, but this is so infrequent and
27:15
Speaker 1: that was such a freak occurrence that, Um, to answer
27:19
Speaker 1: your question the way you wanted to hear it, Yes,
27:22
Speaker 1: it's safe. Well, we have some stats here from the
27:24
Speaker 1: article josh Um. In two thousand six, little old three
27:29
Speaker 1: million people visited theme parks and six hundred of them
27:33
Speaker 1: sought medical attention that year. But the as as Tom
27:38
Speaker 1: Harris points out, these are people who visited theme parks,
27:41
Speaker 1: so for the whole theme park, not just the roller coasters.
27:43
Speaker 1: They could have slipped on the way into the bathroom.
27:45
Speaker 1: They could have gotten in a fist fight with Captain America.
27:50
Speaker 1: So that's total injuries are total people seeking medical attention,
27:54
Speaker 1: only one and thirty of those required overnight in hospitalization.
27:59
Speaker 1: And uh so that means your risk of serious injury
28:01
Speaker 1: just by entering a park is one million in your
28:05
Speaker 1: chance of a fatal injury is one and one point
28:08
Speaker 1: five billion. And your chances of a fatal injury in
28:12
Speaker 1: a car crash or fifteen and ten thousand. And they
28:14
Speaker 1: always use a car crash. Yeah, go go feel safe
28:16
Speaker 1: in your car now. The most dangerous thing you can
28:18
Speaker 1: do is get in the car. Okay. I wondered though,
28:22
Speaker 1: how much of that obviously has to do with um
28:26
Speaker 1: the fact that we don't ride around in roller coasters
28:29
Speaker 1: that frequently. Oh yeah, we ride around in our cars
28:33
Speaker 1: pretty pretty frequently. So so I wonder if the time
28:37
Speaker 1: you know, spent and made it comparable, what the like,
28:40
Speaker 1: how much that margin would narrow. Yeah, it's a good point. Yeah. Well,
28:44
Speaker 1: in two thousand three and UM, the Brain Injury Institute
28:48
Speaker 1: of America studied brain fatalities and they found that it's
28:53
Speaker 1: these people had something going on beforehand. So it's not
28:55
Speaker 1: the ride people who suffered death from head injuries or
28:58
Speaker 1: brain injuries or people. Yeah, they they had undetected brain
29:02
Speaker 1: conditions already in place. So our advice is, you know
29:06
Speaker 1: those little warnings that you see, like if you have
29:09
Speaker 1: a bad back, or you're pregnant, or you're pad blood pressure,
29:11
Speaker 1: those aren't just there willy nilly. You should take heed
29:14
Speaker 1: and don't go on the ride if you fit any
29:16
Speaker 1: of those scriptors. I feel so bad for that family
29:19
Speaker 1: in Chicago. That's awful. Um. I have some world records.
29:24
Speaker 1: Should we go over those that the rough transitioner it was,
29:28
Speaker 1: let's do it. Um. Tallest is the King of ka
29:32
Speaker 1: at a New Jersey four hundred and sixty ft total
29:36
Speaker 1: with a drop of four feet ninety degree angle. I
29:41
Speaker 1: saw it. Oh yeah, And if you are a roller
29:45
Speaker 1: coaster person or you are thrilled by roller coasters, are
29:48
Speaker 1: terrified by them. You can go on to YouTube and
29:50
Speaker 1: type in a roller coaster name or just roller coaster,
29:53
Speaker 1: and people love to make little videos from like the
29:56
Speaker 1: first car of like the roller coaster right, and it's
29:58
Speaker 1: pretty much a p o V experience, very shaky. One. UM,
30:03
Speaker 1: the fastest is in Dubai. That is at Ferrari World
30:07
Speaker 1: and the ride is the Formula Rosa, and that goes
30:09
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty nine, which is really fast if
30:13
Speaker 1: you're not used to go on that fast. There are
30:15
Speaker 1: twelve coasters worldwide Josh with a descent angle equal to
30:19
Speaker 1: or greater than ninety degrees. I think the Millennium coaster
30:22
Speaker 1: has one. They go up to ninety seven degrees. You're
30:24
Speaker 1: actually like you're inverted, you're angled back the other way,
30:28
Speaker 1: and the Millennium has a safety bar and that's it.
30:31
Speaker 1: Oh is at it? Yeah, So you really feel like
30:34
Speaker 1: you're about to just flip right out of the car. Terrified.
30:40
Speaker 1: The largest woody is the Son of the Beast. I
30:42
Speaker 1: think you mentioned that one. UM. The Screen Machine, and
30:45
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta was for a very short time in
30:47
Speaker 1: the early seventies was like a hundred feet all and
30:50
Speaker 1: the fastest Woody is seventy eight miles an hour and
30:53
Speaker 1: that's also Son of the Beast and the most a
30:56
Speaker 1: wheezing sound as it comes into the station. Uh. The
31:00
Speaker 1: oldest one is Leap the Dips. What it's called leaf
31:04
Speaker 1: the Dips. It sounds like an old timey rollers Leap
31:08
Speaker 1: the Dips. Uh. No. It is a Lakemont Park and
31:11
Speaker 1: Alton to Pennsylvania and it was built in nineteen o
31:13
Speaker 1: two and it's still running. That's another one in Pennsylvania.
31:16
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is the heart and soul of this country's historic
31:19
Speaker 1: roller coasters. I just decreed that. Okay, So again you
31:24
Speaker 1: can go onto YouTube check out some pretty cool first
31:26
Speaker 1: person viewpoint roller coaster rides. Also, one of my favorite
31:31
Speaker 1: things to do is to look up photo spreads of
31:34
Speaker 1: abandoned amusement parks. There's some really cool ones across the world. Um,
31:39
Speaker 1: and then you should, I strongly recommend, and I think
31:42
Speaker 1: you can join me in that, right, Chuck and going
31:45
Speaker 1: to read this article how roller coasters work? Um, it
31:49
Speaker 1: has an entire section on how loop the loops work physics,
31:54
Speaker 1: Chuck and I opted not to cover that, but there's
31:57
Speaker 1: a there's a whole bunch of pretty cool stuff cool
32:00
Speaker 1: uh pictures. Yeah, and there in a little animation too
32:03
Speaker 1: on one of them. It's it's just a quality article. Yeah.
32:06
Speaker 1: So before you hit the park this summer, you can
32:08
Speaker 1: bore your friends to death by telling them all about UM.
32:12
Speaker 1: You can type in roller coasters two words uh in
32:15
Speaker 1: the handy search bar how stuff works dot Com to
32:17
Speaker 1: get that article UM. And I guess that brings up
32:20
Speaker 1: listener mail. Josh, you're gonna call this uh for a
32:26
Speaker 1: good cause from an old friend like that. And it's
32:29
Speaker 1: from my friend Jason Jenkins and uh he lives in Japan,
32:34
Speaker 1: married a Japanese lady. Let's se the one you're talking
32:36
Speaker 1: about in the Nuclear Meltdown podcast. Okay, my only friend
32:39
Speaker 1: in Japan. Well, although we have lots of podcasts fans here,
32:43
Speaker 1: and you were like friends as well, so Jason writes
32:46
Speaker 1: in Jinkie is what we call him Jinkie here. Hope
32:49
Speaker 1: Paul is well, buddy. Despite what you may have read,
32:51
Speaker 1: we are all alive and not turning into an outtake
32:54
Speaker 1: from the latest bio hazard sequel. Not back to normal,
32:58
Speaker 1: of course, but Tokyo and any percent of the country
33:01
Speaker 1: is much more workaday life than a lot of the
33:03
Speaker 1: media make it out to be. I could go on,
33:05
Speaker 1: but I'll leave it it there. I write to pitch
33:08
Speaker 1: a possible interesting podcast or article for the site. Have
33:11
Speaker 1: you heard a quakebook? Have you heard a quakebook I have?
33:15
Speaker 1: Do you want to describe what it is? Basically, a
33:18
Speaker 1: an ex pat, an American ex pat I think British
33:21
Speaker 1: British ex pat in Japan got a hold of some
33:24
Speaker 1: tweets and basically turned I guess on the ground social
33:30
Speaker 1: media coverage of the quake and the tsunami and the
33:33
Speaker 1: nuclear crisis into an e book basically like a coffee
33:38
Speaker 1: table e book. Um, he got this whole h he
33:42
Speaker 1: got like I think he used like Twitter to enlist
33:45
Speaker 1: somebody to do translations, and it just became this huge, massive,
33:49
Speaker 1: grassroots um push to kind of document this from from
33:54
Speaker 1: the people's view, right yeah. And it it was titled
33:57
Speaker 1: two minutes and forty six seconds after the quake struck,
34:01
Speaker 1: so like immediately this thing was launched without even probably
34:04
Speaker 1: knowing what they were launching at the time. But now
34:07
Speaker 1: there are thirty thousand words of short personal accounts and
34:11
Speaker 1: the like from two hundred writers editors, designers, artists that
34:15
Speaker 1: have all chipped in for this thing. Very cool. So
34:18
Speaker 1: Jason goes on to say, amazing project, completely crowdsourced through
34:22
Speaker 1: Twitter and then pitched to Amazon, who agreed to waive
34:24
Speaker 1: their usual cut, so all of the money made by
34:27
Speaker 1: this e book goes straight to Japan Red Cross. He said,
34:32
Speaker 1: no one made a sin on it, completely volunteer. Uh.
34:35
Speaker 1: These guys went from an initial idea to writing to
34:37
Speaker 1: production to product in one month. It's really astounding if
34:41
Speaker 1: you think about it. Uh. Several famous semi famous peeps contributed.
34:46
Speaker 1: William Gibson, Yoko Ono, Barry Eisler, Jake Adelstein, etcetera. I'm
34:51
Speaker 1: not directly involved with it, but a lot of my
34:52
Speaker 1: friends are either in writing their stories or helping to
34:55
Speaker 1: put the book together editing, layout, pr etcetera. We are
34:59
Speaker 1: all trying to get fakebook as much attention as possible.
35:02
Speaker 1: And that is from my buddy Jason Jenkins. And I'm
35:05
Speaker 1: going to blog about it and send it out on Facebook.
35:08
Speaker 1: And if you want to support Japan Red Cross, which
35:11
Speaker 1: you should, then go out and buy a quickbook, because
35:14
Speaker 1: you know what's the profits are going there? Where do
35:16
Speaker 1: they get a Chuck. Amazon, Yeah, I mean, I'd say
35:18
Speaker 1: that's a good place. Or just search a quake book
35:21
Speaker 1: on your favorite there's quickbook, Twitter feeds and Facebook and
35:25
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and it's a great way to support
35:27
Speaker 1: the calls over there. Very cool. Good for you, Chuck,
35:29
Speaker 1: Good for Jenkie. Yeah, yeah, you have to meet Jinkie
35:32
Speaker 1: one day. I'm sure I will. Maybe one of your
35:35
Speaker 1: trips to the Japanion, I'm sure I will will run
35:37
Speaker 1: into each other. Maybe. Soya is a small town, Yeah,
35:39
Speaker 1: I'll get into Tokyo and just be like Jenkie. That's it,
35:45
Speaker 1: all right. Um, If you have a picture of yourself
35:48
Speaker 1: terrified on a roller coaster, we want to see it.
35:50
Speaker 1: You can go post it on our Facebook page. That's
35:53
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know. You can
35:55
Speaker 1: tweet it to us uh s y s s y
35:59
Speaker 1: s K a right podcast, all right? Yeah geez. And
36:03
Speaker 1: then of course there's always old fashioned email, which we
36:06
Speaker 1: still always love to get but don't necessarily respond to
36:08
Speaker 1: every single one because trucks getting up there in years.
36:12
Speaker 1: You can send it to Stuff podcast at how stuff
36:15
Speaker 1: works dot com for more on this and thousands of
36:22
Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff Works dot com. To
36:24
Speaker 1: learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon
36:27
Speaker 1: in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How
36:30
Speaker 1: Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.
36:37
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36:40
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