Six Flags Darien Lake

Six Flags Darien Lake in Buffalo, New York, held its annual Physics Day event at the park. Physics teacher Greg Sahm took his group there for not only fun, but an educational experience as well. Mr. Sahm’s students were given an assignment to use PASCO's Xplorer datalogger and new 3-axis Accelerometer Sensor to measure the accelerations and resultant forces on five of the park's roller coasters:

  • Viper
  • Predator
  • Raging Seas
  • Silver Bullet
  • UFO

Mr. Sahm created a Powerpoint slide presentation of the day's activities, which includes graphs taken from the five rides, downloadable data tables (X,Y,Z and resultant forces), photos, and actual video taken of the rides.
View the PowerPoint presentation.

One of the rides students rode was "The Viper", which opened in 1982 and was the first coaster built at the park. This steel roller coaster was the first in the world to turn riders upside down five times. It begins with an exhilarating four-second, 75-foot drop. Then each passenger experiences a 360-degree loop, double corkscrew and boomerang curve at speeds up to 50 mph. Below is a page from the PowerPoint file showing the data collected:


PASCO at Six Flags, Buffalo

Mr. Sahm also has a school science web site . There you can also view the PowerPoint file by clicking on "Teacher's Stuff" link on the bottom right of the page. You will see Darien Lake Physics Day under the "Physics" heading. Teachers will also find other resources on his website helpful.

Learn more about Six Flags Darien Park.

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