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THE THRILL SEEKER’S GUIDE TO EDUCATION

If you’ve been searching for the fastest, the biggest, and the most enlightening educational experience around, your quest is over!

Kentucky Kingdom provides a unique outdoor environment

for multidisciplinary educational programs.

“Educational?” you ask. How can a theme park replace the classroom? As you loop through the air on T3 or gallop around on the Bella Musica Carousel,

you should start to see the patterns.

Whether in park operations, the color schemes used, the selection of rides, the location of walkways, and in so many other areas,

specific patterns have been developed and used.

You and your students will be experiencing those patterns but now, fasten your seatbelt and get ready for an exhilarating “ride” through

Kentucky Kingdom.

Acknowledgments: Kentucky Kingdom wishes to thank the dedicated teachers and staff

of Jefferson County Public Schools who have contributed to our Education in Motion program.

Special thanks to Lee Ann Nickerson, Alexis Rich, Dotty Turnbull, and Kristen Wingfeld. © Kentucky Kingdom, LLLP 2016

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We are happy to provide you with a guide to interesting experiments and projects to enhance your “Education in Motion” trip to Kentucky Kingdom. Use as many as you deem suitable for your students and of course, feel free to alter them to fit your students’ needs.

A. The intent of this workbook is to show students that learning about science and math at a theme park adds an extra dimension - going on rides becomes more interesting and exciting!

B. You may want to do a sample page from the workbook in class, using made-up data, a day or so before your field trip. Students will have a chance to get familiar with the workbook and get a sense of how to use the pages most efficiently.

C. Choose a series of concepts and a minimum number (3 or 4) of rides you would like students to investigate. Since the time spent standing in line is directly proportional to the popularity of a ride, suggest to your students that they plan to use less dramatic rides for a good portion of their required work.

D. Assign students to lab groups of six to ten and request that each group be able to account for its members at all times. In a larger group like this, no one will feel pressured to ride, anyone wanting to ride will likely have a partner to ride with, and non-riders will be able to ask the others how they liked the ride. You’ll also need less equipment.

E. You may want to give your students the option to choose a ride that’s not covered in the workbook and to show how that ride could be used to illustrate physics concepts.

F. When checking your students’ answers, remember that all entries are based on actual student measurements and observations. Human reaction times vary and ride speeds depend to some extent on the ambient temperature and time of day.

G. Many teachers have found it useful to request that their students turn in the workbook at the end of the day. This ensures that enough calculations are done at the park for the students to connect those calculated results with the rides they have just experienced.

USING THE WORKBOOK FOR TEACHERS

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GETTING READY! Before your visit to Kentucky Kingdom, you may need to collect materials and equipment and bring them with you to the park. Some of the activities require that lab or vocabulary work be done at school before you come to the park. Completing these tasks before your trip will allow you to make better use of your time at Kentucky Kingdom and should add to your enjoyment of the day.

REMEMBER:

1. You are going to Kentucky Kingdom to demonstrate your understanding of math, physics, and science by gathering data and applying basic concepts to different rides and situations.

2. You will need to record the data you collect. You are expected to explain your answers. If you feel a question may have more than one meaning, state your interpretation of the question and then answer it.

3. You are expected to obey all park rules and any directions given by the park’s staff. Do not endanger your safety or that of others.

4. Objects dropped from rides can hurt people. You are not allowed to bring loose objects, such as sunglasses, cell phones, cameras, etc., on the rides.

5. It is not required that you ride any of the rides. Yet we hope you will want to get some first-hand experience by riding at least some of them!

6. It’s a good idea to plan ahead! Review the list of any equipment or supplies you will need to bring with you to the park. Determine the data to be collected before going on the

ride, write down the information you gather, and don’t lose it!

7. Your teacher will give you your admission ticket. We recommend that everyone in your group gather at a specific place (suggest the fountain at the entrance) before leaving the park. Great opportunity to take a class photo!

8. Check with your teacher about lunch arrangements.

9. Make sure you understand the arrangements for returning home before you get off your bus to enter the park. Make sure you can recognize your bus!

EQUIPMENT YOU MAY NEED TO

BRING TO THE PARK:

Calculator.

Stopwatch. There are many inexpensive ones available and often students have a watch with a stopwatch mode. Accuracy to one-tenth of a second is sufficient.

Pens and pencils.

Colored pencils, crayons, or markers.

Yardstick or measuring tape.

Paper (plain, graph, and/or drawing).

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SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF PHYSICS

To name and describe your observations, you must be able to speak the language of physics.

Try to use each of these words at least twice while riding or watching the rides.

Acceleration - How fast speed and/or direction change.

Action Force - One of the pair of forces described in Newton’s third law.

Air Resistance - Force of air pushing against a moving object.

Apparent Weightlessness - The feeling of weightlessness that one has when falling toward the earth. (True weightlessness, however, requires that an object be far out in space, where gravitational forces are negligible.)

Centripetal Force - A push or pull that makes an object move in a curved path. Its direction is toward the center of the object’s curved path.

Elapsed Time - The time that has passed, or elapsed, since the beginning of the time measurement.

Elastic Collision - A collision in which colliding objects rebound without lasting deformation or the generation of heat.

Energy - The property of an object or system that enables it to do work; measured in joules.

Equilibrium - A state of balance between opposing forces or effects.

Force - Any sort of push or pull.

Free Fall - Motion under the influence of the gravitational force only.

Friction - A force from surrounding material that pushes or pulls on objects when you try to move them. Friction causes roller coasters to slow down. Friction usually results from the rubbing of one surface against another and produces heat as a result. Air resistance is one kind of friction.

Gravitational Potential Energy - The amount of energy of an object in a position above the surface of the earth. The higher an object is, the greater the gravitational potential energy it has relative to the earth’s surface.

G-Force - One inglr equals the gravitational pull at the surface of the earth. A g-force of 2 g’s means a force acting on an object that is equal to two times the object’s weight. (Acceleration of gravity - 9.8 m/s 2 (-10 m/s 2) or (-32 f/s 2).

Inertia - The tendency of matter to remain at rest or move at a constant speed in a straight line.

Jerk - Rate of change of acceleration, named because you notice this as a feeling of being jerked in the direction of the change.

Kinetic Energy - The energy of motion. The faster you go, the more kinetic energy you have. An object cannot speed up unless it gets energy from something that pushes or pulls it through some distance. Roller coasters get kinetic energy from gravitational potential energy.

A moving object cannot slow down unless its kinetic energy is changed into some other kind of energy. In roller coasters, kinetic energy changes into gravitational potential energy and into heat. The total of the kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy in a coaster tends to remain the same. Brakes change kinetic energy into heat.

Law of Conservation of Energy - The statement that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it may be transformed from one form to another, but the total amount of energy never changes.

Mass - A kind of moving inertia that tends to keep moving objects going in the same direction. Momentum is the mass of a body multiplied by its velocity. Momentum (mass x velocity) tends to remain the same.

Momentum - The product of the mass and the velocity of an object. Has direction as well as size.

Parabola - The shape of the curved path of a ball as it is tossed from one person to another. Roller coaster hills have this shape.

Potential Energy - Energy that is stored and held in readiness by an object by virtue of its position. With its energy in this stored state, it has the potential for doing work.

Power - The rate at which work is done, which equals the amount of work done divided by the amount of time during which the work is done. This is measured in watts.

Reaction Force - The force that is equal in strength and opposite in direction to the action force and that acts on whatever is exerting the action force.

Revolutions - Motion in which an object turns about an axis outside the object.

Rotation - The spinning motion that occurs when an object moves about an axis that is located within the object.

Rotational Speed - The number of rotations or revolutions per unit of time, often measured per second or minute.

Rotational Velocity - Rotational speed, together with a direction of rotation or revolution.

Speed - How fast something is moving (i.e., the distance moved per unit of time).

Velocity - The speed of an object in a particular direction.

Weight - The force on a body of matter due to the gravitational attraction of another body. (That other body is often the earth.)

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LIGHTNING RUN Opening Date: 2014 Height: 100 feet Length: 2,500 feet Top Speed: 55 mph Designer/Manufacturer: Chance Rides Rider Requirements: Minimum of 48” tall Ride Capacity: 2 trains, 20 passengers per train

FEARFALL Opening Date: 2014 Tower Height: 131 feet Lift Speed: 0.7 mph (upward) Drop Speed: 47 mph (downward) Designer/Manufacturer: A.R.M. Inc. Rider Requirements: Minimum of 48” tall; maximum of 300 pounds Ride Capacity: 12 passengers

BELLA MUSICA CAROUSEL Opening Date: 1994 Height: 30 feet Diameter: 52 feet, 6 inches Designer/Manufacturer: Wood Design Amusement Rides Rider Requirements: Minimum of 36” tall to ride alone; under 36” tall may ride with a supervising companion*; over 250 pounds must ride in gondola Ride Capacity: 66 seats

MILE HIGH FALLS Opening Date: 1994 Height: 85 feet Trough Length: Approximately 880 feet Top Speed: 48 mph Designer/Manufacturer: O.D. Hopkins Rider Requirements: Minimum of 42” tall to ride alone; 36” tall and up may ride with a supervising companion* Ride Capacity: 2 boats, 20 passengers per boat

THUNDER RUN Opening Date: 1990 Height: 89 feet Length: 2,850 feet Top Speed: 53 mph Designer/Manufacturer: Dinn Corp. Rider Requirements: Minimum of 48” tall Ride Capacity: 1 train, 20 passengers per train

ROLLER SKATER Opening Date: 1994 Height: 28 feet Length: 679 feet Designer/Manufacturer: Vekoma International Rider Requirements: Minimum of 56” tall to ride alone; 36” tall and up may ride with a supervising companion* Ride Capacity: 8 cars, 2 passengers per car

T3 Opening Date: 2015 Height: 98 feet Length: 2,170 feet Top Speed: 60+ mph Designer/Manufacturer: Vekoma International Rider Requirements: Minimum of 52” tall Ride Capacity: 2 trains, 14 passengers per train

ENTERPRISE Opening Date: 2015 Height: 40 feet Ride Speed: 12 rpm Designer/Manufacturer: HUSS Maschinenfabrik Rider Requirements: Minimum of 54” tall; maximum of 300 pounds Ride Capacity: 20 gondolas, 2 passengers per gondola

CYCLOS Opening Date: 2015 Height: 60 feet Rotation Speed: 12 rpm Manufacturer: Zamperla Rider Requirements: Minimum of 42” tall; maximum of 300 pounds Ride Capacity: 16

SKYCATCHER Opening Date: 2015 Height: 130 feet Rotation Speed: 10 rpm Manufacturer: A.R.M. Inc. Rider Requirements: Minimum of 48” tall; maximum of 340 pounds per swing/300 pounds per passenger Ride Capacity: 12 swings with 2 passengers per swing

RIDE SPECIFICATIONS

*Supervising companion meets all rider requirements, is at least 14 years old, and able to make sure child follows

safety instructions.

FUN STUFF ABOUT RIDES! The first roller coasters were ice slides serving as wintertime amusements in Russian villages and towns, particularly St. Petersburg, during the 15th and 16th centuries. In the late 19th century, LaMarcus Adna Thompson became known as “The Father of the Gravity Ride.” Although he did not invent the roller coaster, he built the Switchback Railway at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, which opened on June 13, 1884. Mr. Thompson took a great interest in roller coasters and developed and patented many features of the modern coaster.

ROLLER SKATER

The Roller Skater is a family roller coaster introduced at Kentucky Kingdom in 1994, the fourth coaster to be introduced at the park over a period of only five years. Manufactured by Vekoma International of the Netherlands, it’s a coaster that people of all ages can enjoy.

The Roller Skater has a 28-foot hill and its track is 679 feet long. Its unusual location over a small ravine was chosen to maximize its thrill factor. Themed by Kentucky Kingdom Construction Inc., the coaster’s bright primary colors were chosen both for their visual impact and their similarity to the colors so often found in a child’s toy box.

THUNDER RUN

Thunder Run, with its six tons of nails, 30,000 bolts, and 250,000 board feet of track, was designed by Curtis Summers and George Fetterman and manufactured in 1990 by the Dinn Corporation, which also constructed Cedar Point’s “Mean Streak,” “Timber Wolf” at Worlds of Fun, and Six Flags Over Georgia’s “Georgia Cyclone.” Thunder Run consistently ranks among the top ten wooden coasters in nationwide polls.

LIGHTNING RUN

Ranked among the top 25 steel coasters in the world, Lightning Run begins with a

breathtaking 100-foot, 80-degree drop and ends with three gravity-defying

camelback hills. This ten-story coaster thrills riders with negative airtime, an ultra-

smooth ride, and nonstop twists and turns.

Lightning Run is the first steel coaster of its kind. Manufactured by Chance Rides,

it is the only Hyper GT-X coaster operating in the world.

T3 - TERROR TO THE 3rd POWER

Kentucky Kingdom’s T3 (“Terror to the Third Power”), a suspended looping coaster

designed and manufactured by Vekoma International of the Netherlands, offers high-tech thrills. Riders are suspended from an inverted track and make several complete 360-degree loops.

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Although the concept for a suspended coaster, with the train hanging beneath the track and swinging its riders from side to side while negotiating steep drops and sharp turns, has existed since the early 1980’s, the coaster itself was not built and introduced at a theme park until 1992. The original design called for upside-down inversions, but this idea never made it past the design phase. The coaster’s side-to-side swinging action made inversions infeasible because of the possibility that the train could fall back when inverted if it negotiated a full 360-degree loop too slowly.

In 1992, a Swiss coaster design team took the concept of the suspended coaster one step further. In the new twist they developed, the train hangs from the track and yet hugs it rigidly, enabling it to maneuver through full 360-degree loops. T3 is the third generation of this type of ride. Rather than the four-across seating that had been standard on this type of coaster, T3 seats only two across, providing more thrills for its riders, who sit in chairs similar to chair lifts, with their feet dangling.

T3 was the very first of the new generation of suspended looping coasters to debut in

North America. The ride features a 98-foot lift hill, a ten-story drop, and five full inversions along its track length of 2,170 feet. Two trains with seven coaches are able to operate simultaneously, allowing well over 1,000 guests per hour to enjoy the ride.

GIANT WHEEL

The 15-story Giant Wheel boasts 10,290 light bulbs. Each of its 40 gondolas carries 6 riders, or 1,050 pounds, for a total capacity of 42,000 pounds.

The Giant Wheel is, of course, an example of a Ferris wheel. When the promoters of Chicago’s 1893 World Exposition were searching for an engineering marvel to rival the Eiffel Tower, which was built for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, George Ferris, a civil engineer and bridge builder, proposed a 264-foot-tall pleasure wheel. Towering above the midway, the completed wheel had 36 gondolas, each 24 feet long, and carried up to 2,160 passengers on a ride consisting of two complete revolutions lasting 20 minutes apiece. George Ferris is the only amusement ride designer whose ride bears his name.

FEARFALL

FearFALL, manufactured by A.R.M. Inc., rises to a height of 128 feet and treats its riders to a 2.5-second, 60-foot free fall, reaching a top speed of close to 50 miles per hour.

FearFALL is the second generation of the free fall ride and Kentucky Kingdom was the first park in the world to get this prototype. Passengers sit in open-air cars, their feet dangling, and are pulled to the top of the tower in a mere sixty seconds. Following a brief pause at the top, riders experience a breathtaking free-falling plunge back down to ground level.

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BELLA MUSICA Kentucky Kingdom’s Bella Musica Carousel, made in Holland and designed as a celebration of the world’s most classic carousels, is a one-of–a-kind ride. Each wooden figure on the carousel is hand carved, a process that takes about 100 hours per figure, and the carousel horses have real horsehair tails. The figures duplicate the designs of famous artisans from various countries, including the U.S., France, Germany, and Holland. All of the glass pieces on the ride are hand-cut and the floor boards are made from the unusual Bangkirai wood. Bella Musica is 52-1/2 feet wide and 30 feet high and weighs more than 24 tons.

SKYCATCHER

This tall and graceful ride, manufactured by A.R.M. Inc., gives riders a terrific view of

Kentucky Kingdom, Hurricane Bay, and the Louisville skyline from swings 130 feet in the

air. It can carry up to 24 riders at a time.

CYCLOS

Cyclos is the ultimate summertime twist! Riders sit on a huge rotating disc attached to a swinging pendulum. The pendulum begins with small swings back and forth, but gradually swings its riders higher and higher, ultimately taking them through a full 360-degree loop. Manufactured by Zamperla, this hair-raising ride towers 60 feet tall and carries 16 passengers at a time.

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Giant Wheel Fifteen stories

Climbing, soaring, floating Gondola sailing through the air

Ferris Wheel

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