Where are you heaviest on a Ferris wheel?

The centripetal acceleration always points towards the center of the circle. So at the bottom of the circle, the centripetal acceleration is pointing up, so riders feel heavier than their true weight. At the top of the circle, it is pointing down, so riders feel lighter than their true weight.



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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 Large Ferris Wheel can hold approximately 12-24 children at a time, with a weight limit of 100 pounds per person.

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A few do, with limits around 250 or 300 lbs. But the cat majority use their restraint systems to prohibit larger would-be-riders from riding. If you have ever ridden a B&M roller coaster with over-the-shoulder harnesses (think Batman: the ride), then you've seen the belts that attach the seats to the harnesses.

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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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A Ferris wheel ride where guests ride in gondolas suspended from the outer rim of the wheel.

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Motion sickness refers to that woozy sensation one gets when traveling by car, boat, plane, on roller coasters and ferris wheels. Motion sickness and visual vertigo (dizziness and unsteadiness brought on by visual triggers) can produce similar symptoms, and are sometimes mistaken for one another.

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Most rides without any kind of restraints that go high will not allow single riders for the possibility of suicide. Possible risk of suicide is one possibility.

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Although it can't compete with high-speed roller coasters for sheer excitement, there is an appeal to ferris wheels that many cannot resist. However, this does not meant that ferris wheels are any safer than high speed rides, since they may lack the safety measures to keep riders safe.

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