Daring experienced skaters would race around the upper edge region of this steep side cone shaped rink uninterrupted, whilst clumsy novices would slide or tumble down to the central point out of the way every time they faltered or actually fell over.

A small hatch at the central point would act like a plug hole in a sink to allow those defeated by the rink to escape further pain and humiliations.
-- xenzag, Jan 08 2019

The whole shebang. Parabolic_20Ice_20Park
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 08 2019]

I imagine a drag-line style ski lift, starting at the middle and spiralling outwards, increasing in speed until it reaches the outer rim, whereupon riders let go, and orbit back down to the centre. Alternatively, after exiting through the plug hole, humans could be re-injected into the rink via a tangential entry slope.
-- mitxela, Jan 08 2019


I am rather curious as to the precise shape of those circular charity coin collectors with the roughly inverse-paraboloid cross-section that provide so much entertainment as the coin rolls faster and faster falling towards the hole/Sarlacc pit, whatever.

With this sort of shape, the daring would endure the higher g's towards the center while the newbies would be hugging the walls.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 08 2019


I once skated on a frozen flooded meadow. The water level had dropped slightly after the freeze so the ice was in the form of large shallow bowls. It was tricky getting out from the centre.
-- pocmloc, Jan 08 2019


Unfortunately, it seems you succeeded.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 08 2019


A water main blew in the middle of winter by our place. It burst in six places before the storm was over and made six gigantic ice mushrooms all inter connected like a see-through blue vaulted cathedral. The water on the ground had frozen into irregular step shapes like a topographical map and my brother and I got to skate it before anyone else had found it. Still remember how the light danced.

(+)
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 08 2019


Poetic
-- xenzag, Jan 08 2019


If the whole structure rotated sufficiently rapidly around its centre, it would become a sort of icy "wall of death". What with all the sharp ice skates, and people moving round at speed, any malfunction of the drive system would end horribly with the users plummeting helplessly down into the centre, no doubt causing multiple injuries if not deaths.

This really must be built. [+]
-- 8th of 7, Jan 08 2019


hmmm, have we done parabolic skating yet? Where the rink spins so that physics are the same as a stationary flat rink?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 08 2019


Dunno. Check around for blood and screaming.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 08 2019


Huh. Missed that one. [link]
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 08 2019


There isn't any mention of death or serious injury in that idea, although maintaining the rotation is proposed in an annotation. This suggests that the parabola is fairly shallow, and the rotational forces proportionately modest.

It is therefore unsatisfactory in many respects.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 08 2019


We can fix that.
Scale up the rotation and curve so that a steep ramp is required to reach entry speed.

Exiting the rink without a ramp should provide much of the required mayhem.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 08 2019



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