At Aqualandia, we have multiple slides with different heights and speeds, as you probably already know. Still, undoubtedly, the most extreme and fastest is Verti-Go. Verti-Go is made up of two slides, one red one and one green one that will catch your eye as soon as you enter the park – and from far off as well.
The red slide is 33 meters high and it is the highest capsule slide in the world – and you can only find it exclusively at Aqualandia, so it’s something that sets us apart from the rest. The green slide is a little smaller –28 meters high– but that difference doesn’t mean that it isn’t as good at getting your adrenaline pumping as its red counterpart.
This attraction hangs from a 42-meter-high platform. That is equivalent to the height of a 13-story building and it means you have to go up approximately 250 steps to get to the top. That height and its steep slope make the bold people who decide to go on Verti-Go slide down the attraction in just 3 seconds, reaching a gravitational acceleration that exceeds 100 km per hour. Without a doubt, it’s a way to release tension and let off a lot of adrenaline.
But, what exactly is “gravitational acceleration” when we talk about Verti-Go? When we speak of gravitational acceleration, we’re referring to acceleration caused by gravity. Said acceleration, denoted by the symbol “G,” tells us how intense the forces that attract two bodies are in relationship with their masses. Therefore, the bigger the mass, the greater the force – and, consequently, the greater the acceleration.
Taking into account the fact that gravitational acceleration would depend on each visitor’s mass, we can use the 100 km/hour mentioned previously as an average figure based upon a typical adult of average height – but you must always remember that depending upon how you are built, your acceleration could be greater or less than that figure.
Thus, the gravitational acceleration reached by Verti-Go can be compared with normal, everyday actions that we do. For example, things like the gravitational acceleration of a sneeze. While it may not seem so, when we sneeze we produce 2.5 G and release air at more than 130 km/hour, approximately. Did you know that? Well, it’s a fact. The air from our sneezes goes faster than Verti-Go – although our sneezes don’t leave us with such an impression as Verti-Go.
Another example could be the speed at which an airbag goes off in a car. An airbag goes off when 3 G are detected, which would be approximately 165 km per hour. It seems surprising that the speed that a person can reach when sliding down our most famous slide could be compared with the speed at which an airbag goes off in your car, but those are the facts.
There are also everyday actions that exceed the speed of our most famous slide. Although it may seem unbelievable, patting someone on the back can reach up to 4.1 G, going down a step would be equivalent to 8.1 G, and falling from a chair would equate to 10.1 G.
Having said that, these speeds are reached in a different way and they don’t make us feel that sense of weightlessness that we feel when we go down Verti-Go, as our slide allows for a type of free fall to occur. It’s a unique sensation that you cannot miss.
We’re counting down the days for the cold weather to go away and the season to start. We’re waiting for you.