i just got home and it was the best park i have ever been to in my life....when i went i thought it would be like a six flags all disgusting and filthy with those ny attitude people(i am one of them)(like great adv) but it was more like a hershey....it was amazng and when i went there i also thought the only good coastrs would be MF and Raptor but every coastr was an extreme thrill...it was incredible and this year they had freeway witch is a express pass for WT and MF and i only had to wait 15 min on a 2 1/2 hour line...i rode all the coastrs(all together) at least 35 times in 2 1/2 days..it was great

ohh and btw i found out from an employee at TGI fridays that (wlel u all know this) they get an employee ride nite and get ride the coastrs in the dark and one said that when they were fooling around once and turned off all lights on millenium and all train brakes(not track brakes) they rode it in the dark and reached speeds of up to 120mph (on a radar gun)(they did it again in the light also)...she said it was amazing and also...i never knew though that coastrs have brakes inside the trains that dont allow it to excede speeds...i never even knew a coastr could go that fast...i found it to be pretty kewl

Sounds awesome! Glad you had a good time, most people who go to CP do. This should probably be in trip reports though.

The TGI Fridays (Hey, I ate there!) worker was wrong, however. There is no way MF could ever reach 120 per hour. We've discussed this many times. Also, there aren't any brakes on the trains themselves, like she said.

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yea i really didnt believe her either..but i wanted to hear what guys had to say...well if u did turn off the brakes how fast could it go?

There are absolutely no brakes on MF's trains or track.

The only brakes are the static brakes at the end (after the last overbank) and the moveable ones uptrack of the unload station. There are no brakes in either station, only drive wheels to move the trains.

What that employee told you was incorrect.

wow....im surprised..she sounded like she knew what she was tlakin bout too...well how do u guys know all this

Well the only way Millennium Force could have hit 120 is if they put sum rocket boosters on the back and just let it rip. (I'm not countin that out though) CP is a great park, only flawed by its lack of trees and in my opinion the people working the games by Disaster Transport. One guy said he'd hunbt me down if i didnt play. He didnt catch me . . . yet.

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Thank you for riding Reaper! Drop Ride to Doom, and remember to desecrate a sanctuary today.

120 is terminal velocity. (Las Vegas' proposed 700' Arrow Fishhook coaster was to hit 120...note 700 FT). That person obviously did not know what he/she was talking about. He/She knows no better than your average 10 year old kid telling his parents that Millennium Force is 900 FT tall. And who the FREAK actually takes out a radar gun at night during an employee run just to clock the speed for fun...yeah sounds believable to me...

CP's sister park Knott's Berry Farm is building the world's first Intamin AG 'Rocket Coaster', a coaster that uses a hydraulic launch, and is set to open June 6, 2002. (Yes, that's in less than two weeks). Xcelerator, will indeed have brakes ON (actually, UNDER) the train, instead of previous Intamin coasters where metal fins are on the train and the magnets are moving parts that clamp onto the fins from the side and slow the trains down. Xcelerator, flips that around and has magnets beneath the train's chassis and the metal fins used to slow the trains are mounted permanently on the track.

Take a look -
(The brake-run metal fins are permanently attached, while the fins that line up along the launch run are able to be moved up and down.

- http://www.twistedrails.com/kbf/images/0519/0519-08.jpg

- http://www.twistedrails.com/kbf/images/0519/0519-10.jpg

120mph is the approximate terminal velocity of a human body in freefall. Terminal Velocity, or TV, changes relative to the aerodynamic drag of said object and density of the medium in which it is moving (usually air). I would say Intamin mega/giga trains could achieve a higher TV than the Arrow fishhook trains. It's all about aerodynamics.

Great to hear you had a good time at Cedar Point, and the employee who gave you that tall tale probably did it to see if you beleived it. If I worked at CP, I'd mess with people's heads, too....the General Public will beleive anything!

-Seth

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Moved to Trip Reports.

You must've gone on Monday. I chatted with some employees and they say they get to ride the coasters after the park closes on Monday nights. That must be pretty tight and it's a reason I'd like to work there. As for MF hitting 120. I doubt that. Just because it's at night and the employees are riding doesn't mean it's gonna no nearly 30 mph over the designed speed. I really doubt the claims when people say MF goes that fast. It may hit 100 sometimes, but for it to hit almost 30 mph over the designed speed sounds pretty impossible. Sounds like you had a good time, though. MF rocks!

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ThrillNetwork Editor Emeritus
Voyage is the best roller coaster ever.
2008 Raptor ride count - 126. Lifetime - 1,143.

Nope, it will never hit 100mph. Physically impossible.
MATH TIME:

The formula for final velocity in freefall is VF^2=VI^2 + 2a X s
or Final Velocity Squared = Initial Velocity squared plus 2 times accelleration times displacement.
Plug MF's numbers in.... VF^2=19.1ft/sec^2 + 2 x 33.2ft/sec^2 x 300ft. Solving for VF gives you 140.1 ft/sec. Let's convert that to mph..multiply it by 3600 seconds/hour over 5280 feet/mile and that gives you 95.5 mph. Therefore a 300 foot freefall drop would only have you going 95.5mph at the bottom...nowhere near 100mph. Credit does go to the Intamin engineers for seemingly beating friction and wind resistance.

How much would you need to extend MF's hill to reach 100mph?

This time solve for displacement. S=VF^2 - VI ^2 over 2a. That gives you 329.4 feet.

How fast would the cable lift have to go to get MF up to 100 mph? This time solve for Initial Velocity or VI

VI^2=VF^2-(2a x s) which results in a whopping 31.03 mph!

Disclaimer: This is for freefall physics...I am aware that MF is at 80 degrees, but I don't want to get into the slight changes that will cause. I apologize for the crudity of the formulae, but ti's the best i can do for now. Maybe I'll come up with a graphic that shows this better.
-Seth

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I appreciate having intelligent people like you on the boards oramonster.

wow..im impressed oramonster..and kraxleridah i hope u werent referring to me as the stupid one....she was pretty convincing and ir eally wasnt thinking of physics or reality at the time..i was just thinking of getting on MF or WT or maybe raptor o few times before i leave...but wow..i idndt even think it would be that hard to get to 100 mph...im surprised and impressed

Hey guys. I am going to Cedar Point and would like to know what a Freeway is ? Is it something you buy to be able to skip all the lines ? If so where and how much is it ? Does it really help ? Thanks alot.

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----Dr. Immelman----

FreeWay is a "hand stamp" system which assigns guest to a block of time in which they can enter the line at a designated point and wait 10-15 minutes to ride. Currently, it is in testing on two rides, Millennium Force and Wicked Twister. It is totally free of charge, hence the name "Free"Way and operates on the basis of first come, first serve. Here's a news article pertaining to FreeWay in the Sandusky Register. http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-...ocalnewsweekly

-seth

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