Culture: Amusement Park: Ride: Sliding
perpetual motion fun generator   (+3)  [vote for, against]
…with just a little help from the user

equip slides, of all types: dry slides, water slides, helter-skelter slides, slides with a big bump in the middle, etc with bungee ropes.

the bungee equipment is mathematically calculated for each individual user so that each slider / bouncer type person (big or little, male or female, human or animal) can slide down precisely to the bottom of the slide to be whisked just as smoothly back up to the very top of the slide again. obviously the angle of the slide will increase the speed and / or the enjoyment.

hand grips are provided at both bottom and top for when the user wishes to cease. stopping blocks can be thrown down, if at any time, he/she goes a little green-looking to the slide operator.
-- po, Jan 28 2003

How about two slide down together, but at the bottom one lets go?
-- FarmerJohn, Jan 28 2003


rollers. I want rollers under me, like a creeper or something.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 28 2003


[po] I don't want to be the one to mention the Law of Conservation of Energy and the heat generated by the bungee ropes, so I won't.
-- Cedar Park, Jan 29 2003


If the origin point of the bungee is taller than the top of the slide, then it can happen, ya see.
-- thumbwax, Jan 29 2003


Run the slides next to a river. Weight the 'sleds' down with river water at the top. Bomb down, release the water at the bottom and have your newly light 'sled' whisked back up to the top again.
-- weedy, Jan 29 2003


That's not bad, [weedy]. Gets round the conservation of energy problem by using the potential energy in the water.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 29 2003


Another way to get around the conservation of energy problem is to use a cannon to fire the person down at speed. This increased kinetic energy will be stored in the elastic and returned to bounce them higher than their starting point.
-- kropotkin, Jan 29 2003


With weedy's modification, maybe you could have the sled self-lubricate by releasing the water throughout its descent. You'd need more water in the sled, but you could otherwise have waterless waterslides.
-- Monkfish, Jan 29 2003


er ... [weedy, Monkfish], do rivers run along the tops of hills where you live?
-- hippo, Jan 31 2003


You wouldn't need a river at the top of a hill, [hippo]; you'd pump the water up in the usual way but load it into the sled instead of/as well as running it down the slide. The point's not to avoid expending that pumping energy, it's just to make the sled lighter on the return than on the descent so that the bungee equipment can (perhaps) return the sled to its original height.
-- Monkfish, Jan 31 2003


Just the idea of sliding *up* a sled is enough to win me over.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 31 2003



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