October 2014

Bishop Museum’s latest attraction is Scream Machines, the Science of Roller Coasters. Typically, these exhibits are somewhat static even though they’re touted as interactive, but I must say there’s fun stuff to do at Scream Machines. At the entry way, you can watch a model car zoom through a fictitious mini roller coaster. If it were to scale, no human could survive the ride.

Off to the left is a simulator taking passengers on virtual rides on America’s most famous roller coasters. Now this was pretty cool. Although the video of the simulation wasn’t high definition, the rides were believable enough, and you could see and hear differences between wooden and steel coasters.

The inner displays focus on the science of the roller coasters, analyzing speed, height, curvature, angles, and more. Roll balls down the tracks to see the impact of the differences.

Think you understand all the physics and science of roller coasters? Now go build one yourself. Not a real coaster per se but a customizable track with turns, loops, falls, and everything else you learned.

I don’t have pictures of the Revolver demo where participants stand on a spinning platform to learn about angular velocity. Walk a straight line? Real tough. Roll a ball in a straight line, and it curves, or does it? This was a fun demo to wait for. And if you’re feeling nauseous from all the movement, there’s a display explaining what the human body is going through when you upchuck. Basically, it’s like this.

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The science of barfing

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Oh and on a totally unrelated note, the orange and navy VH07V shirt looks great in the sun or under black lights.