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Alton Towers world record!

Ian

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As if having the only coaster with 14 inversions wasn't enough...

STAFF and pupils at a secondary school in Sutton Coldfield have helped set a new world record today (Friday).
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Teachers and students at The Streetly Academy tore up the Guinness World Record books at Alton Towers for the Largest Practical Science Lesson.

A massive 927 pupils assembled on the theme park to participate in the captivating class to celebrate National Science Week.


In collaboration with The Streetly Academy, the resort staged a lesson included two exciting experiments which involved full student interaction. Pupils from all over the country learnt about physics and experienced the thrill of practical learning. Following the record, all pupils ventured around the theme park and had a chance to win a free return class trip to experience the world-beating rollercoaster The Smiler, plus learn about the physics behind the world’s first 14 looping ride such as the speed, acceleration and momentum.

Read more: http://www.suttoncoldfieldobserver.co.u ... z2xZCHh54b

A good cause, I suppose. Although who is going to learn anything in a theme parks when there's Nemesis to distract them?
 
Clearly people who don't respect how good Nemesis (and Air of course) are :P

Physics lesson at a theme park? It's a nice excuse for a day out at a theme park but hmmmm.
 
My brother-in-law did something like this when he was in high school. He told me they took instruments on the rides to measure g-forces and such. He said trying to take g-force readings on Batman: The Ride really takes the fun out of being on a roller coaster.
 
So what made this different than a "Science Day"? A number of American amusement parks hold science days geared towards providing science experiments and demonstrations in the park, with local school students attending.

I attended Cedar Point's twice while in grade school (it is afterall a 6 minute drive away), and remember calculating speed at certain points on Raptor, or drawing a force diagram of Demon Drop.

Any of these amusement parks could probably beat that attendance figure, depending on how they defined science experiment.
 
^Either A: the physics day at Cedar Point didn't have 972 people or
B: Cedar Point, and other American parks are not big enough attention whores to pull this stunt

:)

I have attended two physics days for those keeping score at home, one at BGT and one at IOA.
 
I found these recently from a school trip to Chessington (in 2000?). I didn't actually bother to fill it in though. The 'educational' trip was just a cover to take the kids to a theme park.

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Yeah, the educational aspect is bollocks, so much so that when I took a school trip there, I told the disappointed young 'uns that the talks we were booked in for had been unfortunately canceled (they hadn't, but I didn't want to go). They were devastated at missing such a wonderful educational opportunity. The cheers that rang out through the coach were obviously just a front to make me feel better. I'm sure the prospect of an extra 2 hours on the rides barely lifted their spirits. Poor wee souls.
 
There was loads of those National Science Week posters in the queue lines on Wednesday. They weren't very interesting. That's why I left them out of my oh so interesting report.
 
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