How Does This Ride Work?

[TowerTimmy]

Asked the guest sitting in the front row of a major roller coaster in the Orlando area.

Me: "It runs off gravity"
SG: "No it doesn't. It has to be gas powered."
Me: In utter shock "Um, no maam, it does run off gravity. The train gets hooked to a chain, which pulls it up the lift hill, then when you reach the top, the chain lets go, and the train coasts through the track."
SG: "Yea, but how does it go?"
Me: What I wanted to say is that if we didn't have to use gravity, what's the point of taking you up into the air? We should just be able to turn on those afterburners and send you through. I just looked at her for a second and said "Maam, the ride runs on gravity, the train coasts down the track." I checked her harness and moved on.

Wow, what an absolute idiot. I wanted to smack her, and have her stand under the track and ask her to turn off those afterburners. Oops, guess we cant! : :

[Shorty82]

You're sort of right. Rollercoasters run off of momentum, usually built up by using gravity on a lift hill but sometimes other methods are used, such as Rockin' Rollercoaster's catapult system.

Doesn't change the fact that she was an idiot though.

[vixen101485]

Of course the obvious answer depending on the coaster would be forward and/or backward.

[Randy B]

When all else fails, "Pixie Dust" or maybe "Magic" is the answer. At least in a Disney park. Anywhere else the answer is "Applied Physics...Do you have a degree and a membership card from the Applied Physics Union? Then I am not allowed to tell you." :D:

Randy

[mechurchlady]

The truth is that the ride gets power from kids who run all day on giant hamstper wheels.

[Cheshire Figment]

Is it possible there is a special connection from the Monstropolis Power Authority and it uses the power of the laughs collected at MILF?

[hobie16]

I saw an interview with a nuclear physicist at Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratories on TV. He was asked what he did. He responded with a technical laden description of his job. The interviewer asked if he could put the job description into layman's terms. The physicist thought for a moment and replied, "No."

[Princess Susi]

Is it possible there is a special connection from the Monstropolis Power Authority and it uses the power of the laughs collected at MILF?

That acronym still throws me! :hysteria:

[GuestJockey]

When all else fails, "Pixie Dust" or maybe "Magic" is the answer. At least in a Disney park. Anywhere else the answer is "Applied Physics...Do you have a degree and a membership card from the Applied Physics Union? Then I am not allowed to tell you." :D:

Randy

LOL - when the fireworks got cancelled a few weeks ago, we told everyone complaining in City Hall that "must be that not enough people believed."

I don't get why guests ask questions if they don't want to hear your answers. Even if the conversation had gone:
SG: how does this work?
You: gravity
SG: really? wow, I thought it would be gas powered or something.
...it would have been a dumb comment, but not frustrating for you. It's the fact that they argue - implying that you're not telling them the truth - that really drives me nuts.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

That acronym still throws me! :hysteria:

Yeah, that means something completely different in my line of work.

I am suprised that someone didn't catch that. Or possibly its "Hidden" humor?