{"id":66784,"date":"2026-08-23T05:01:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phys-edu.net\/wp\/?p=66784"},"modified":"2026-08-23T05:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:01:53","slug":"we-measured-every-second-of-splash-mountains-altitude-and-acceleration-disneyland-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phys-edu.net\/wp\/?p=66784&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"We Measured Every Second of Splash Mountain’s Altitude and Acceleration! ~Disneyland Physics~"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m Ken Kuwako, your Science Trainer. Every day is an experiment.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The other day, I was scheduled to accompany my students on a school trip to <\/span>Tokyo Disneyland<\/b>. I’ve always thought that <\/span>Disneyland is a treasure trove of teaching materials<\/b>, so this was the perfect opportunity. Since I was going anyway, I decided to turn the roller coasters into a science lesson and borrowed a GoDirect <\/span>accelerometer<\/b> from Narika, an educational science equipment company.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the accelerometer. Besides acceleration, it can also measure altitude. It can be connected to an iPad for data collection.<\/p>\n

I slipped it into my pocket and collected altitude and acceleration data while riding Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain. There was just one small problem: I’m not a fan of roller coasters<\/b>, and it had been decades since I’d last ridden one. I was scared, so I recruited another teacher to ride with me.
\nExperiments don’t always work on the first try\u2014that’s practically part of the fun. Unfortunately, my measurements didn’t work out the first time, so we ended up riding each attraction twice. (Sigh.) My colleague kindly went along with me, too.<\/b> Luckily, because Tokyo Disneyland was operating with reduced capacity due to COVID-19 at the time, we were able to get on each attraction in about 15 minutes. That was a pleasant surprise, especially since I had been prepared to wait two hours!<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the Splash Mountain data<\/h3>\n

Let’s begin with the data from Splash Mountain. The upper graph shows acceleration along the x-axis (the direction of travel), while the lower graph shows altitude.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ll share the data with you later. Looking at the altitude data as a whole, we can see that Splash Mountain has four drops\u2014and you can definitely feel them while riding. The ride lasts about six minutes, which is remarkably long for a roller coaster. Here’s a video released by someone who actually rode the attraction. It might be fun to watch it while referring to the graph above.<\/p>\n