Yesterday I mentioned that I had recently visited the world’s largest Mobius Strip, and wondered if you could figure out where I was. The answer is…..
…..the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool. One of the rollercoasters there is called The Grand National and consists of a huge Mobius Strip. Two cars race each time, and each returns to the station that the other left, even though they never cross paths. Sounds confusing? That’s because it is.
Here is a pic of the sign giving some of the history of this remarkable ride….
And just for fun, here is the famous TV clip of kids trying to eat and drink on a rollercoaster…..
That ride made me feel sick once. I love the wax museum at Blackpool, especially the horror section with the Exorcist room and Hellraiser figures.
I studied in Manchester, and every year in the week before we all departed for the summer we’d make a pilgrimage to Blackpool. The highlight was always a ride on the Grand National.
We’d split into two groups, with one group in each of the two rollercoasters. The group in the ‘winning’ rollercoaster ended up with bragging rights for the rest of the day.
Hmm, I was almost right, even though I was joking
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/the-worlds-largest-mobius-strip/#comment-2507
That’s not possible though, the tracks must cross otherwise the trains would come back into the station upside down, so it’s not really a mobius strip.
See http://hmmm-tea.livejournal.com/196861.html for more detailed argument.
tea – yes, i was thinking that last night…..any topology people out there can can sort this out?
Looking at POV videos of the ride on Youtube, the tracks appear to separate when the trains go into and out of the station, so I suspect they actually cross somewhere around there.
Yes the grand nation is one continuous track so if you keep riding it you come into alternative stations. However it’s not a mobius strip as you only ever ride on the top of the track hence there is a second side.
Theoretically it should be possible to build a mobius strip rollercoaster, but you would be up side down in the station.
So, i think that although the cars appear to start and stop together, one of them is already half way round the track, as it were.
I remember this from my youth.
The story I remember is that they used to leave at the same time an “race”. I vaguely remember riding it once when it did this.
There were several places where one train would duck under the other and “change sides” during this race. Unfortunately, one train left the tracks and struck the other, killing many people. They stopped racing them after that.
If the story is true, the accident would have occured in the late 60′s early 70′s.
Hi. No one has been killed on the grand national since it was built. The trains still race each other even now! The trains cross over right at the beginning of the ride when the track goes under the station. Have a look at http://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com
Paul
Frac, my experience is from the mid 80′s. They were certainly racing each other then.
So it is not a mobius strip then? I didn’t think it could be and it kept me awake for a while. I got ‘roller coaster’ but couldn’t figure out which one. I thought it must be a new-fangled one that went upside down.
So where is the biggest Mobius strip then?
That’s really cool. The idea of a roller coaster crossed my mind when I tried to guess.
[...] A rollercoaster that’s a mobius strip. [...]
I know that this is a slightly late (8months) reply, but I am studying mobius bands with the open university and was looking on the internet for some re life aplications and came across this thread, any way, after a bit of wikipediaing I found out that there are only 3 mobius roller coasters remaining in the world and apparently this is the lagest http://www.rcdb.com/354.htm (so richard you may need to make a trip to Mexico and repost! teehee)
hot scenes…
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