h a l f b a k e r yGo ahead. Stick a fork in it.
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This is a way to experience that floating, swooping feeling you get in a flying dream, while wide awake. It consists of a very long tube, similar to a water-chute, that is about six feet in diameter. Unlike a water-chute, the tube is filled with water up to the half-way mark. You lie face down, floating
in the water as it moves along the tube. You wear a diving mask and snorkel, so you can breathe and see easily. The top of the tube is matt black, to prevent any light reflecting around inside and spoiling your experience. But the bottom half of the tube is transparent. Very transparent - like polished glass. So transparent you can't even see it, especially since there is no light coming from above to reflect off it. And the water is crystal clear, so you can't see that either. It is also warmed to just that temperature where you can barely feel it.
So, here you are, floating along in your tube, with no discernible means of support. At first you are floating about ten feet above a meadow, dotted with trees and flowers, that slopes down at the same gentle gradient as your tube. You pass through the foliage of several trees, and ahead of you, the meadow seems to come to an end. Suddenly, you soar out over the edge of a cliff, and you are eighty feet in the air, gliding on nothing but a warm current! The tube takes on a steeper gradient, and you accelerate, banking to left and right as the tube carves out a series of swooping turns, passing under the spindly concrete arches that support it. Below you is a tropical forest, with brightly coloured birds-of-paradise flying between the trees, and an animatronic dinosaur grazing at a vast bowl of custard. Your swoops take you closer and closer to the foliage, and then in one long glide you drop through the leaves, and you are flitting between the trunks of the trees. Ahead of you there is another pool. In a last dramatic swoosh, you are dumped into the warm water, and offered a towel by a flunkey dressed as a penguin.
Just like a flying dream, except that instead of waking up, you can now take the elevator back up to the beginning, and for just $30 take another flight.
Another ride with flying (but no floating)
Throw_20me_20for_20...oop_20(or_20twenty)
I think I would rather stay dry. [Vernon, Oct 16 2011]
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Annotation:
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I like it. Freudian, very Freudian, but I like it. Now the one downside is that no matter how clear and clean the water, and no matter how polished the glass, your view will be distorted because of the index of refraction of the water. Imagine being in a dive suit inside an aquarium looking OUT toward the viewer. But I think there is a work-around for this, so I'm croissant inclined |
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A curved tube will distort the veiw but if the bottom were flat I think the image should be fine. |
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+ for a really long clear waterslide, that'd be cool, but
maybe if the floor was flat, with curved sides would work
better. What about birds flying into this "very
transparent" glass?? |
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Given that you're breathing by snorkel, you really don't want very rought water, so I think the gradient needs to be slight throughout. But very interesting concept. I think the tube should take at least one turn over a crowded room, say one of the theme park's restaurants. |
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[DrCurry]... I present you with the following mental image: You and your family are dining on a delicate cottage cheese apetizer, when suddenly above your head you see a fat man in a tight Speedo with a snorkel in his mouth and a glazed look in his eyes float past. |
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Or you're him, and he's naked, so everyone starts laughing and pointing. Wait, wrong dream. |
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Falling, falling, falling, falling, panic, wake up in cold sweat. Okay, I'm ready for the next ride ... |
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eyeguy: this is a waterpark we're talking about; "dining" is an overstatement for any kind of eating activity that occurs in such places. Or, pace Worldgineer, a rave. |
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Make the water 98.6 F or so and you'll barely notice it's there. |
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Cedar Point / Six Flags Over ____ are you paying attention? |
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Put this one, your other, and Hard Hat World together and you have the makings of a small fortune. |
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Have "naked night" for the naturists and you have a real winner. Wait, this is a winner the way it is too. Great idea! [+] |
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Do naturists have the naked dream? If so, do they get embarassed? |
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Ok, I just realized I have a major issue with this idea. Imagine the fat guy with the snorkel and Speedos only he's fallen asleep during the ride. You know that thing at summer camp where they put a sleeping person's hand into some tepid water?... |
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I'm not sure about the 6' dia, but half-transparent pipes
(for flow inspection) already exist in industrial
applications; look up, see what's in the pipe. Vini vidi
brownwater. I've seen a couple in paper mills that might
be big enough for a grown man to swim through. |
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Think i've seen something similar in Trainspotting. |
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They should have several different paths and blindfold you before you get into the tube, so you don't know which "dream" you're getting. |
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This is a lovely idea. I'm glad [phundug] anno'd it. |
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