roller coaster?

Telling someone else about how the Zacspin, and X are just roller coasters versions of the Zipper, I just wondered in a way what is the meaning of a roller coaster? What really counts, and really doesn't count as one. I tried to figure this out before, but it isn't that easy. Could the Chance Zipper really be a roller coaster? The ride first have has cars, secondly it changes elevation - up and down motion, and forwards, or backwards), and the cars have wheels attached to them. To me even I would consider a Himilaya, or a Flying Bobs type of ride as a roller coaster because they go on a track, go up and down, and so forth.

I guess what really gets wondering is because Zamperla, and their rides of Disko Coaster especially, and a ride that Elitch Gardens has called the Halfpipe. For the Halfpipe, the ride doesn't even look like coaster trains compared to how V2 looks, or another LIM like Mr. Freeze. It's kind of funky.

You can't really say that it has to have a chainlift because to me, I think of V2, and Mr. Freeze as roller coasters, but I question a ride like the Disko coaster in which th coaster car doesn't look like one.

So again, why isn't the Chance Zipper a roller coaster?? Can you figure out why it's not?? I'm kind of puzzled why it wouldn't be except for the fact people will say, well it just doesn't look like a roller coaster - roller coaster seats and so on.

Is Jester's Wild Ride a roller coaster? What's the different with that, and Half Pipe except that Half Pipe goes higher up? http://rcdb.com/2648.htm?p=0

Just my opinion, but my definition of a roller coaster is any amusement where cars ride along rails on wheels. But under that definition the Tilt O Whirl would be a coaster because it has cars with wheels that roll on individual circular tracks. So not being a coaster aficionado I'll just shut up now.
Of course you could add "linked cars" to my definition which would then eliminate the Tilt O Whirl................

But, than a Mouse Coaster, a Euro Fighter, Space Mountain, and so on would not count as roller coasters either as it they have separate cars which aren't linked together. I guess my dilemma continues.

Imagine if an amusement park could say the Himilaya, Flying Bobs, and now Tilt-A-Whirl could count as roller coasters. Cedar Point would than have 20 roller coasters. What really draws the line for a company say a ride is a roller coaster?

I'll take SFGAm, and I can easily eliminate a bunch of rides not being a roller coaster. For the Big Easy Balloons, the ride goes up in the air by a hydraulic, and than probably spins with a wheel - no roller coaster their. The same goes for Orbit. For Huss Top Spin, it's two arms lifting the gondola, and no roller coaster their. For the River Rocker, to me this is so close to the Half Pipe, but I woundn't count this as a roller coaster at all because their is no track. It's just drive wheels making it go back and forth.

For Condor, you could say that it has wheels, and it does have a track going up the ride but at the same time, the middle of the ride is attached to arms, and those are the things attached to the cars making them spin, so it can't be a roller coaster. For Giant Drop, this is a little tricky. There are cars, and there is track for this ride, but a roller coaster I believe must have sort of hills, and the Giant Drop doesn't do this. A Chance Zipper goes up and down many times during the ride whereas this ride (Giant Drop) goes up once, and than just goes down. The ride never changes degrees. It's always 90. A Tilt-A-Whirl at least has hills, and so does a Flying Bobs, and a Himilaya.

However, what I was just thinking is that I remember that the Hay Bailer that was at Great America had wheels (a Flying Bobs type of ride), and a track it would glide on, but the Flying Bobs I just went on made by Chance didn't have a wheels, or a track. The metal pieces were just up in the air.

However, as I said before Jester's Wild Ride does have a track, it has to have wheels to make it stay on the track, and it does have a sort of hill just like Halfpipe. I just don't see a reason why you couldn't call that a roller coaster if Elitch Gardens can call Halfpipe a roller coaster and SFGAm could call V2 a roller coaster.

Well now that I have thought about it...... I took the actual wording "Roller" and "Coaster" and so it would be defined as anything that "Rolls" but more importantly that "coasts" under gravity. The definition of coasting is when an object moves through the effect of gravity.
So that would mean that a true roller coaster would have to be a ride that accomplishes it's circuit without the benefit of power for at least fifty percent of the ride. That eliminates the Tilt O Whirl because it is affected by a motor which slopes the floor sections (providing artificial gravity to each car.)
It also means that the object should "Roll." Generally speaking the definition of rolling would imply wheels of some sort, but not necessarily a track. But now the Giant Drop would qualify as a roller coaster!
So to make things easier, everything at Great America is a roller coaster!!!

Technically though the Tilt-A-Whirl completes it's circuit more than 50% of the time. When the ride stops after it's been on, the car still goes in it's circuit (which is the circle), and could potentially complete it's circuit 3 times even when it's stopped.

I guess though you could not count the Himilaya, Tilt-A-Whirl, Flying Bobs, and Zipper as not a roller coaster because most of the ride for each of those rides is motor powered, and they don't let the ride just go without the motor powered force during the true ride cycle. A ride like V2 let's go for half a circuit, and than uses the power again, and than goes up the back spike, and uses the power again. At least their is a non-power moment for a ride like V2.

It's definitely a whole chicken and egg type thing. There must be an industry definition somewhere.

American Heritage Dictionary definition: A steep, sharply curving elevated railway with small open passenger cars that is operated at high speeds as a ride, especially in an amusement park.

A link to a very similar discussion: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/forum...cgi?read=156637

All you might ever want to know about roller coaster physics:http://cec.chebucto.org/Co-Phys.html

When V2 and Deja Vu first opened, I questioned whether they were actually roller coasters because I thought a roller coaster had to have a complete circuit (I was a lot younger and didn't know as much). Since then though, they have just been generally accepted as coasters. When I first saw pictures of a disko, I thought that would be considered a coaster since it has a railway like track, is only powered for some of the course, and goes up and down on the track. However, multiple sources and enthusiasts agree that it is not a roller coaster. The power thing is also in question because there are some powered roller coasters as well. I'm not sure on the details of those since I haven't seen one in person, and didn't feel like doing the search on RCDB. And, for anyone who has ever been to IOA and rode the elevated train in the Dr Seuss area (you know, the one themed after the story about the racist Sneeches), that runs on a track that looks exactly like a roller coaster. There is some change in elevation in it, but not much. The wheel assemblies even look like something you would see on a coaster, complete with a ride wheel on the top, an upstop wheel on the bottom of the rail, and side wheels. Furthermore, Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls is considered a coaster by some sources like CoasterFanatics, but not a coaster by others, like RCDB. If some count it as a coaster, it's clearly a water coaster, but then why not Yankee Clipper or Logger's Run at SFGAm? There's a small portion where there is a lift, and the cars change elevation several times and can complete most of the circuit under their own kinetic energy (okay, there's some assist from the water in most parts). One could even argue that it gives riders very similar sensations to a roller coaster. I'm really not sure what is a roller coaster anymore, but for every definition you can come up with, you can find a few counterexamples. At this point, I tend to go off of what is counted as a coaster on CoasterFanatics or RCDB in order to determine my track record.

Didn't read the whole topic but because of how hard defining a roller coaster, I do it simple way. What RCDB considers a roller coaster is kosher with me. However with that said, it's up to the individual to decide what they count as a roller coaster.