A Derby Racer is a carousel for grownups. There are actually three of them in existence: Playland (New York), Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio), and Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Lancashire, United Kingdom). I say they are ‘for grownups’ because they whiz around at speeds of up to 40 km/h!
Now at such speeds, the centripetal acceleration is considerable, and staff need to be trained to embark and disembark in a way that ensures they don’t fall over. Actually, the transition from standing on the platform to standing on the carousel entails both a radial (centripetal) and a tangential (linear) acceleration.
Watching the staff at Playland’s Derby Racer embark and disembark makes for some very nice physics.
Some staff prefer to gain speed before jumping on to avoid the tangential acceleration component, in which case they just have to quickly lean inwards to ensure the total reaction from the floor (normal + friction) pushes through their center of mass…
Other staff prefer to jump straight on from a standing position, which requires them to temporarily lean in a direction which has both a radial and a tangential component, and then lean in radially as soon as they’ve acquired the carousel’s tangential speed…
The latter approach requires dance experience however 😉
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