- This is an ad.
(bright energetic music)
- Look at this, look at this.
- Whoa.
This is so fun.
- Wow, look at the castle!
- Cmon!
(energetic music continues)
(roller coaster rumbling)
(riders screaming)
- Hi! Welcome to the Disney Princess Club.
I'm Alexander.
- And I'm Alyssa.
Today, we're at the Magic Kingdom Park
at the Walt Disney World Resort.
And we're going to get to talk
with a real life Disney Imagineer
to learn about roller coasters.
- Yes!
He'll be teaching us the ins and outs of the
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride.
Like what makes the ride fun
and how technology plays a part in the ride experience.
- I'm so excited to meet a real life Disney Imagineer!
- Me too!
I can't wait to learn about technology.
- Well, come on. Let's go meet him.
(wind chimes tinkling)
(energetic music)
- Hello.
- Hey guys.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm Jerold.
I'm with Walt Disney Imagineering.
I'm one of the Disney Imagineers that gets to work
on all of our cool rides.
- Whoa. That's so cool.
- Yeah. I've been here for about 30 years
working on all these neat rides.
- That's a long time.
- It is a long time.
- That means you know a lot about rollercoasters,
don't you?
- I know quite a bit.
- Nice.
- When was the first rollercoaster made?
- Well, believe it or not,
roller coasters are actually about 200 years old.
- Whoa.
- The first roller coasters were
like wooden tracks that they covered in ice
and then people would ride sleds down them.
- I didn't know that. That's so cool.
- Yeah.
- Why did you become an engineer?
Is it because you love roller coasters?
- That's one of the reasons.
When I was a kid growing up,
I used to like taking things apart
and putting 'em back together.
Later, I kind of learned that that's what engineers do.
They combine that curiosity
with science and other STEM related fields.
So, that's what I went to college for.
And I've been really lucky that I've been here
and gotten to work on all these great rides.
- That's really cool.
- What do you guys like about roller coasters?
- I love the speed.
It's like shh-shh-shh. (laughs)
- Yeah. What about you?
- I like the drops 'cause you feel like there's butterflies
in your stomach and it feels so fun.
- [Jerold] That's right.
- [Alexander] I also really like sharp turns.
- Well, as it turns out,
it's a combination of both the speed
and the turns that make a ride,
or a rollercoaster, fun.
- Nice.
- So, think about driving down the highway in a car.
Nothing's particularly fun about that
but when you're first getting onto the highway,
maybe from a stop, and you accelerate,
and you feel like you're getting pushed back in your seat,
that's way more fun, right?
- Yeah.
- So, now imagine you're on that same highway
and you make a couple of turns.
It's those changes in speed and change
in direction that make things a lot of fun.
- I never thought about that.
So do all rides then have the same technology?
- You know, that's a really good question.
All rides use acceleration in different ways
but the technology changes.
So we go from rides like Dumbo
which is a round ride all the way up to big roller coasters.
- Do we have names for the separate accelerations?
- Another great question.
If you're traveling in a straight line
we call that linear acceleration.
You have to be changing speed in a straight line.
But if you're going around a curve
whether you're changing speed or not
we call that angular acceleration.
So it's those two combinations on a rollercoaster
or any ride that makes a ride fun.
- How do you make those?
- We have to use all kinds
of different math and science, computer engineering.
We think about all that stuff that we combine to
tell these great stories that you get to experience
as our guests.
- Whoa, that makes a lot of sense.
And that is so true looking at that ride.
- [Jerold] Right?
- But what about the big grads that go upside down?
How does that work?
- It's all different types of acceleration
which we sometimes refer to as Gs.
Going upside down is just a different way
your body experiences g-force.
It's different because you don't normally feel that
when you're standing on the floor
or sitting in a chair.
That's what makes going upside down fun.
- Yeah. So there's linear acceleration
which means you are going straight.
And then there's angular, which means you're turning.
- That's right.
You guys are fast learners.
All right.
Are you guys done talking about roller coasters?
What do you say We go ride?
- Yay!
(upbeat music)
(screaming)
- That was awesome!
That was like the best ride ever.
- Nice. Nice.
I'm glad you guys liked it.
Hope you had a great time.
Was that fun?
Did you learn a lot about coasters today?
- It was awesome.
Thank you so much Jerold.
- No problem.
- Thank you!
- Nice meeting you guys.
Have a great rest of your day.
- Bye.
- See you again.
Thank you!
- I didn't know about you, but I
didn't know there was so much to learn
about roller coasters.
That was awesome.
- Yeah. What was your favorite thing that you learned about?
- Hmm. I loved everything, but my favorite part was learning
about all the acceleration.
- Mine was how much math
and science just goes into one rollercoaster.
- Yeah. That was really cool.
Well, I think we should ride some more roller coasters
with mom.
- Yeah
- That's all the time we have today.
I'm Alyssa.
- And I'm Alexander.
Until next time.
- Bibbidi-bobbidi Bye!
- Come on, let's go.