Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
I like this idea, only I think it should be run by the government.

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Centrifugal Human Cannonball

Up, up and away!
  (+9, -1)(+9, -1)
(+9, -1)
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Ahh, the Winter Olympics! Don’t you just love the grace and artistry of the ice skating, the rugged endurance of the cross-country skiers and the delicate finesse of the curlers? But, most of all, don’t you just love to see the downhill skiers ploughing headlong into the crash netting!

Which brings me to my point.

Most of you will be familiar with the fairground ride called “The Rotor”. Basically it is a circular barrel that spins up to a certain speed and then the floor is removed leaving you pinned to the wall by centrifugal force.

My idea is to have a version of this ride for just one person that operates like a slingshot. The ride gets up to speed, the floor is removed and then, when the speed is just right, it slams to a stop, hurling you off into the void where a vast quantity of circus safety nets and crash netting arrests your airborne progress and brings you back to earth in one or more pieces.

Safety helmet and large quantities of heavily padded clothing could, if you really insist, be an optional extra.

PS: Not sure about the category for this idea but it was either the one I picked or Public: Population Control.

PPS: Category changed, Thank you dentworth!
DrBob, Feb 27 2006

Birthing Centrifuge http://www.colitz.c...3216423/3216423.htm
Affix human.
Spin.
Release human.
Baked? [calum, Feb 28 2006]

[link]






       Doesn't tarzan ride one of these centrifuges? It is lacking, ahem, a little power... but still, he does get flung pretty well.
pathetic, Feb 27 2006
  

       amusement park rides are listed under culture [DrBob] and I kinda like this. I've often wanted to be farflung and caught up. but isn't this a trampolene turned sideways. ok, not quite. +
dentworth, Feb 27 2006
  

       on the rotor, didn't the riders stick to the walls? drop the floor away and they would still be stuck to the wall. wouldn't you need to break the wall to fling the victim away? like flicking a fly paper. you'd have a job placing the nets as the punter could land anywhere. +1   

       I knew someone who rode the rotor and it stripped all the seams from his jeans and he finished the ride naked.
po, Feb 27 2006
  

       Charming idea, but rather poor design. Still, I'd like to ride in something like it.
baconbrain, Feb 27 2006
  

       I've never been much of one for rides, but at fourteen I did try "The Rotor", managed to work myself upside down over the course of the ride. The operator was kind enough to warn me to reorient myself before he slowed it back down and released us.   

       I still enjoy doing this while scuba diving.
normzone, Feb 27 2006
  

       //The description is a bit vague but I'm guessing the single person version of "The Rotor" doesn't have the barrel bit either, just a single person wide board//

Correctamundo!
DrBob, Feb 28 2006
  

       No reason why this can't be expanded to a multiperson design. The roof of the inverted spinning trapezoid could open when the room is at maximum rotation speed, with the riders bursting out like petals suddenly detatched from the sunny yellow centre of a daisy. After a brief, vaguely parabolic flight the riders will land softly, nicely spaced out, on the trapeze nets which surround the spinning trapezoid.   

       You could sell aerial photos of the flight for a price pitched to cripple the purses of parents.
calum, Feb 28 2006
  

       //an inverted trapezoid// [calum], not wishing to be pedantic or anything (well, just a little bit), but what is the "correct" way for a trapezoid to be?
coprocephalous, Feb 28 2006
  

       //"correct" way for a trapezoid to be?//   

       Dressed in black tie?
Jinbish, Feb 28 2006
  

       Oh, I may be a geometry fascist but I am not a prescriptivist; there is no correct way to orientate a trapezoid. However, there is, with humans, a tendency to presume "normal" orientation as being the most structurally stable, hence my feeling free to adopt a slightly less clumsy orientational description by assuming that the reader would take the inverted trapezoid form as featuring the smaller plane lower than the larger. As ever, though, I failed to reckon for the pedants. <g>
calum, Feb 28 2006
  

       [po] wasn't he a bit odd, wearing nothing but a jacket on a fairground ride?
hippo, Feb 28 2006
  

       Oh, you mean a frustum.
//However, there is, with humans// Well, there you go with your prejudices and your assumptions.
coprocephalous, Feb 28 2006
  

       cheap jeans, hippo. it ripped the seams and they fell off. I think he probably had a T shirt on though!
po, Feb 28 2006
  

       [+]<tech pedant>The centrifugal force isn't what throws you. What does it is just your linear velocity around the edge. That inertia would keep you flying. The centrifugal force is what keeps you turning around the circle.   

       Preliminary calculations: 10 meter radius circle, 2 G's force = 30mph / 50 kph launch speed. </tp>   

       No need for solo. Just do in sequence like a gatling gun. Shoot everyone onto the top part of a water slide and they go down in sequence.
sophocles, Feb 28 2006
  

       I don' think this would work. If you simply stopped the rotation suddenly, everyone would slide sideways around the cylinder and crumple on the floor.   

       Odd fact: rotors are all but extinct in America.
Abusementpark, Dec 10 2006
  
      
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