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Strongest roller coaster for airtime at Alton Towers?

Strongest Alton Towers roller coaster for airtime?

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    97
wait how is Wicker Man winning this currently. So people actually think it has better airtime than the smiler and Rita?
 
rob666 said:
Still struggling with the fact that other people's opinions may be different than your's then mate?
Thought you had got over that one!
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No but you see this is where you're wrong. Airtime isn't an opinion it's fact. Just like speed you can't claim a ride feels faster than another when it's not. Well you can actually but it just doesn't make sense
 
Ethan said:
I've heard people say Wicker man feels faster than Rita and I'm thinking 'don't be ridiculous'
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Thing is you are both right and wrong depending on the perspective, yes Rita is faster than Wicker Man however there are reasons why Wicker Man may feel 'faster' to some people: it is close to the ground, has sharper turns and has that 'rickety' feel that comes with wooden coasters.
Airtime is also not an exact science in the same way, there are different types of airtime (floater and ejector) which are characterised by differing amounts of negative G-forces for differing durations and people feel these in different ways. There are also the factors of train weight, temperature and rain which can influence the speed of the ride therefore changing the forces experienced on it. Also @Danscott22 mentioned restraints and how tight they are changes how airtime is experienced, I find this most noticeable on coasters with ratchet restraints as they are not as adjustable as hydraulic restraints. As much as I like facts and statistics (there is no debate, the fastest rollercoaster in the world is Formula Rossa), there are some categories where opinions matter and should be respected. This is especially true of any that include or imply the word 'best', for this reason Guinness World Records refuse to adjudicate 'most beautiful person' despite being asked to constantly.
It is possible to measure which ride has the longest airtime or the largest negative G-force. But 'best' is up to you.
 
I don’t think you can call airtime strength, speed or anything of that ilk to do with a ride a fact for a number of reasons.

Firstly, there are all sorts of factors that can make two rides on the same coaster vary a lot; for instance, if you rode Wicker Man at 10am, in the front row, on a cold morning, I’d wager that the ride would feel different to how a night ride at 9pm, after it’s warmed up for nearly 12 hours, in the back row would feel.

Also, our brains perceive forces in different ways, due to a variety of factors. For instance, things like your levels of sleep the prior day, how hydrated you are, and simply how your brain is wired can affect how you perceive forces and sensations. Two people could perceive the same force very differently, simply down to biological or extenuating factors.

Furthermore, raw force and speed figures do not dictate how intense a ride feels on their own. For instance, Galactica and Nemesis technically have the same maximum peak of positive g-force (3.5G), and a not dissimilar maximum speed figure (Galactica is 47mph, while Nemesis is 50mph). However, most would agree that those two coasters ride very differently. How a coaster rides boils down to things like rate of change of force, and the amount of the ride for which the peak g-force is pulled, as opposed to raw force and speed figures on their own. It isn’t an exact science.

But all in all, it boils down to opinion and individual perception. Even when two people are riding the same ride together, they might perceive it very differently. What is truth to one person may not be truth to another.
EDIT: Basically what @Thameslink Rail said!
 
With regards to the whole Wicker Man and Rita thing - my family were convinced Wicker Man was the fastest coaster at Alton - were always on the back two rows because of RAP (wheelchair user) and there are times I’ve been on there when I’ve been convinced there’s no other ride faster at Towers. I know there is factually - but there are times when it doesn’t feel that way.
 
Danscott22 said:
With regards to the whole Wicker Man and Rita thing - my family were convinced Wicker Man was the fastest coaster at Alton - were always on the back two rows because of RAP (wheelchair user) and there are times I’ve been on there when I’ve been convinced there’s no other ride faster at Towers. I know there is factually - but there are times when it doesn’t feel that way.
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Even Rita isn't the fastest coaster at Towers... It's Oblivion 😛😉
 
Why is Octonauts in second place? 🤣 Voted for the Smiler. 2nd place is Rita and 3rd place is Wicker Man.
 
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