How it all began

At my alma mater, the end of finals and graduation are separated by a week. A large portion of the population (though I hesitate to say a majority) spends this week at one of several beaches along the Atlantic coast in a tradition called, imaginatively enough, "Beach Week."

I went to Beach Week after my first year, but found it to be not quite my cup of tea. Having spent my formative years at another beach, I wasn't quite as gung-ho for the sandy brine as my classmates. The next year I joined a few of my friends on their long-standing tradition of "Alternative Beach Week." These wise folks spent the intervening time period riding roller coasters and (the year I joined, and most years since) seeing the movie premieres that typically abound during that early portion of the summer. Now this was something I could get excited about.

One year, while waiting in line, we got into the age-old (among coaster enthusiasts at least) debate as to whether the front, back, or middle of the train provided the so-called "best ride." While the quality of a ride is purely subjective (some people not enjoying bumps, others relishing them), we could not even come to an agreement as to where the forces of a ride would be the greatest. This was most bothersome, especially since our group is composed heavily of engineers.

So we created, in our minds, an apparatus that could measure the experience of riding on a roller coaster. It would contain accelerometers to measure the forces and a video camera to record the visuals. It sounded fairly simple.

It actually is not.

While it seems most of my group has since lost interest in such a project, I find myself now both gainfully employed and with a modicum of free time. And I still love roller coasters. Thus you have the Coaster Metrics Project. In this blog, I will be recording my efforts to build the measuring device (coasterometer?) and the results of my visits to roller coasters with the equipment.

Hopefully it will be interesting to someone.