Do you feel lighter or heavier at the top of a roller coaster?

Riders may experience weightlessness at the tops of hills (negative g-forces) and feel heavy at the bottoms of hills (positive g-forces). This feeling is caused by the change in direction of the roller coaster. At the top of a roller coaster, the car goes from moving upward to flat to moving downward.



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The normal force however has a small magnitude at the top of the loop (where the rider often feels weightless) and a large magnitude at the bottom of the loop (where the rider often feels heavy).

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Roller coasters are generally designed to have non-zero but fairly small normal forces at the top, so a rider feels almost weightless. At the bottom of the loop, the apparent weight can be considerably larger than mg, so a rider feels much heavier than usual.

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The same can be said for this phenomenon on roller coasters. “You feel very light at the top of loops, but heavier than usual at the bottom” (Boston University).

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In a coaster that has seats facing backward, the rear car offers the best of both worlds -- you get a great view and the most intense ride.

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At the top of the loop, the gravity force is directed inward and thus, there is no need for a large normal force in order to sustain the circular motion. The fact that a rider experiences a large force exerted by the seat upon her body when at the bottom of the loop is the explanation of why she feels heavy.

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At the bottom of the loop, gravity and the change in direction of the passenger's inertia from a downward vertical direction to one that is horizontal push the passenger into the seat, causing the passenger to once again feel very heavy.

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As your coaster tops a hill, the front car will seem to hang over the edge, but the rear car will whip over much faster. The middle seats have the weakest ride in terms of view and speed but they'll give you everything the seats in the front and the back do at just a little less intensity.

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The truth is that most visits to the amusement park are full of thrills, fun and are statistically quite safe. However, some amusement park rides, and especially roller coasters, are a significant cause of neck and spine injuries. While these injuries don't make the nightly news, they can slow you down.

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The best place to sit on a roller coaster is the front row because it has both the greatest values of negative Z acceleration and the greatest time spent in free fall.

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