Ah, Wikipedia failed me. It had listed the Great American Scream Machine in one of those sequential-title-holder lists of Fastest, but not one for Tallest.
You're probably right, though, that what most everybody means by ``biggest roller coaster'' is the ``tallest'', possibly ``tallest drop'' although there's an obvious correlation between those two. ``Greatest enclosed surface area'' wouldn't have made my list, even back when I was teaching multivariable calculus and showed students how to figure the area enclosed by a figure through knowing the contour enclosing it.
I don't remember any specific hype from the opening of the Great American Scream Machine, although I remember the excitement and hype and the lines particularly for Lightnin' Loops and for Freefall, which inspired those two-and-more-hour-lines.
You've been the force getting me to overcome my fears of particular roller coasters, since I want to share them with you. We encourage each other in that way, I think.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-23 05:55 am (UTC)Ah, Wikipedia failed me. It had listed the Great American Scream Machine in one of those sequential-title-holder lists of Fastest, but not one for Tallest.
You're probably right, though, that what most everybody means by ``biggest roller coaster'' is the ``tallest'', possibly ``tallest drop'' although there's an obvious correlation between those two. ``Greatest enclosed surface area'' wouldn't have made my list, even back when I was teaching multivariable calculus and showed students how to figure the area enclosed by a figure through knowing the contour enclosing it.
I don't remember any specific hype from the opening of the Great American Scream Machine, although I remember the excitement and hype and the lines particularly for Lightnin' Loops and for Freefall, which inspired those two-and-more-hour-lines.
You've been the force getting me to overcome my fears of particular roller coasters, since I want to share them with you. We encourage each other in that way, I think.