How do you tell the lead horse on a carousel?

According to carousel legend, the lead horse of any carousel is always the biggest, most decorative horse. In many instances, this horse is a military or war horse. If a chariot is included in the carousel, the first horse right behind the chariot on the outside is the lead horse.

Carousels are not considered "thrill rides" by any stretch of the imagination. Still, carousels are as reliant on the laws of motion as their more exciting cousins, the roller coasters. It's theoretically possible that, allowed to spin out of control, a carousel could gain enough speed so that the riders would be thrown off. Thankfully, runaway carousels are not the least bit common.

Are some horses moving faster than others?

With all of its beauty and seeming simplicity, the carousel is a delicate balance of motion and forces. All of the merry go round horses move through one complete circle in the same amount of time. The horses on the outside of the carousel have to cover more distance than the inside horses in the same amount of time. This means the horses on the outside have a faster linear speed than those at the hub.

What if they're galloping?

On some carousels, the carousel horses go up and down in a galloping motion simulating what it might be like to ride a real horse. For these carousels, the ride designer had to approach the problem of movement around the central axis differently. In a normal carousel, each horse maintains a constant acceleration, radius, and tangential speed (speed tangent to the circular path of the carousel). If you add a gallop to some of the horses, you must consider the forces needed to change that horse's position upward or downward as it goes around the track. In designing with these forces in mind, you also need to take into account the mass of the horse and its rider.

kids carousel

Mid-Autumn Festival

The day after tomorrow, September 27th, 2015, is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the second most important festival to us Chinese people after the Spring Festival. The holiday lasts from September 26th to 27th. Every year, when the festival comes, Chinese go home from every corner of the country and the world for family reunions.

Welcome to China and explore the traditional folk customs of this interesting festival! And also welcome to visit our factory -- Hotfun Amusement Park Rides Manufacturer.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second grandest festival after the Spring Festival in China. It takes its name from the fact that it is always celebrated in the middle of the autumn season. The day is also known as the Moon Festival, as at that time of the year the moon is at its roundest and brightest. Amusement Rides for sale

History

Mid-Autumn Festival is an inherited custom of moon sacrificial ceremonies. The ancient Chinese observed that the movement of the moon had a close relationship with changes of the seasons and agricultural production. Hence, to express their thanks to the moon and celebrate the harvest, they offered a sacrifice to the moon on autumn days. Kids Rides Manufacturer

This custom could be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC) and was more often practiced by the royal class on the Autumnal Equinox. At that time, the custom had no festival background at all. Later in the Sui (581 - 618 AD) and Tang (618 - 907 AD) dynasties, social prosperity inspired the custom of appreciating the moon on the moon sacrifice ceremony day among common people and the two merged. The people expressed their faith more liberally than the royal class and so they did not strictly hold their activities on the Autumnal Equinox. So August 15th of the Chinese lunar calendar, the closest full moon day to the Autumnal Equinox, turned out to be a better choice and was set as a fixed festival. This happened in the Tang Dynasty. By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127 AD), Mid-Autumn Festival had already become a widely celebrated folk festival. 

Romantically speaking, the festival is to commemorate Chang E, who in order to protect her beloved husband’s elixir, ate it herself and flew to the moon.

Legends

In addition to the romantic legend Chang E Flying to the Moon mentioned above, there are many other legends and stories related to this grand festival. The most well-known ones include Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine, Wu Gang Chopping Laurel Tree, and Zhu Yuanzhang and the Moon Cake Uprising. 

Customs

On the festival day, family members gather to offer sacrifice to the moon, appreciate the bright full moon, eat moon cakes, and express strong yearnings toward family members and friends who live afar. In addition, there are some other customs like playing lanterns, and dragon and lion dances in some regions. The unique customs of ethnic minorities are interesting as well, such as “chasing the moon” of Mongolians, and “steal vegetables or fruits” of the Dong people.

Moon Cake
The Moon Cake is the special food of Mid-Autumn Festival. On that day, people sacrifice moon cakes to the moon as an offering and eat them for celebration. Moon cakes come in various flavors according to the region. The moon cakes are round, symbolizing the reunion of a family, so it is easy to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can evoke longing for distant relatives and friends. Nowadays, people present moon cakes to relatives and friends to demonstrate that they wish them a long and happy life.

traditional mooncakes

Top Places to Celebrate the Festival in China

Some people prefer stay at home to celebrate the festival, while others would like to go outside to have a closer contact with the bright full moon. Over time, some outdoor places become more popular, including ancient man-made sites, natural scenic areas, countryside and skyscrapers, etc.

beautiful light show

Mid-Autumn Festival in other Asian Countries

Due to frequent communications with China and migrations of Chinese people, Mid-Autumn Festival has become popular in other parts of the world, especially neighboring Asian countries where it is celebrated in the same way as in China, while others add their own customs.

The Fun Of The Frisbee Ride

Frisbee Rides /Pendulum Rides are a little like the swing sets you might remember from your childhood. Swings give you a feeling of flying in a controlled manner. You pump your legs to provide enough force to increase the height of the swing's arc, and enjoy the increased velocity of the downward swing. When you stop pumping, the swing gradually slows and then stops.

Frisbee ride also include Giant Frisbee Ride and Kids Frisbee Ride.

What causes the feeling of "weightlessness" on frisbee ride?

Riders often experience near-weightlessness as they approach the top of a Giant Frisbee ride. If the ride is the type that makes a complete 360-degree circle, they experience a feeling of complete weightlessness.

Feelings of weightlessness are not due to a decrease in forces of gravitation; people do not feel forces of gravity. What you feel is the force of a seat (or other external object) pushing on your body with a force to counteract gravity's downward pull. A 180-pound person at rest in his office chair experiences the seat pushing upwards on his body with a force of 180 pounds. Yet at the top of a pendulum ride, the same 180-pound person will feel less than this normal sensation of weight. At the very top of the pendulum ride, riders begin to fall out of their seats. Since a 180-pound person is no longer in full contact with his seat, the seat is no longer pushing on him with 180 pounds of force. Thus, the rider has a sensation of weighing less than his normal weight.

Why do riders experience high g-forces on thrill rides?

As riders pass through the bottom of the circular arc, they often experience high g-forces. Once again, these g-forces are not evidence of increasing forces of gravitation, but the result of increases in the amount of force applied by the seat upon their bodies. Understanding this demands a little information about circular motion.

The motion of an object in a circle requires that there be a force directed toward the center of the circle (sometimes called a "centripetal force"). This means that at the bottom of the circular swing, there must be an upward force (since the circle's center is upward). Gravitational forces are always directed downward upon a rider's body; thus, gravitational forces cannot meet this centripetal force requirement. The seat must supply the centripetal force, pushing upwards on the rider with a force greater than gravity's downward pull. For a 180-pound person, the seat might have to supply 360 pounds of upward pull. This is twice the usual amount experienced by our 180-pound rider. For this reason, we would say the rider experiences 2 g's of force (a seat force that is 2 times the gravity force).

5 Amazing Amusement Park Pictures

The weather is nice and cool, and the kids are out of school, its perfect opportunity to go to the amusement park and scream on all the rides until you get to a point of sickness that you promise yourself you’ll never go on a roller-coaster again. Then again, with how much some of these parks charge, that might not be a hard thing to do.

If you haven’t gone to the amusement park yet this summer, time to make some plans! Even if you don’t like park rides, there are plenty of great photo opportunities. Here are 5 amazing amusement park pictures to inspire you to go and have some fun with your camera.

Santa Monica Pier, California by David Smith

Sundown at the fair by Chad Johnson

Pacific Park in Santa Monica by Pedro Szekely

Tea Cup Ride With The Mad Hatter by John Watson

Wave Swinger

The Origins of 9 Delightful Carnival Rides

You know GEICO’s customer service delights customers, but how well do you know where these delightful carnival rides staples got their starts?

1. FERRIS WHEEL

The Ferris wheel made its debut at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At least that’s what George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. always said. One year earlier, William Somers designed and built three wooden wheels-each measuring 50 feet in diameter-in New York and New Jersey. Both men owed a debt to the similar, yet awkwardly named, wooden “pleasure wheels” invented in 17th century Bulgaria.

2. BUMPER CARS

Bumper car ride may seem like a modern advancement, but we’ve been driving them-and more importantly, crashing them-for a century. There's some dispute over who invented the road-raging carnival favorite, but one thing all scholars can agree on: how difficult early versions were to steer.

3. CAROUSEL

Carousels with wooden horses were first used to give horseback riding lessons to Turkish and Arabian cavalry members. When crusaders returned to Europe, they brought the device back with them. The spinning attraction became especially popular in France, where 17th century riders tried to pierce a target while moving at high speed. The power source? Actual horses!

4. THE ROLLERCOASTER

Although the first patent went to LaMarcus Thompson in 1885, he wasn’t the first person to make a rollercoaster. Modern rollercoasters descended from “Russian Mountains,” winter sled rides that were popular in 17th century St. Petersburg. (Situated on icy hills, the sleds topped out at 200 feet!). Meanwhile, in the states, a Pennsylvanian mining company constructed a “gravity railroad” in 1827 to move coal. But on slow workdays, they charged thrill-seekers to take it for a spin.

5. TUNNEL OF LOVE

Unmarried couples of the late 19th century needed a place to canoodle in public. Love - or, at least hormones - found a way with the boom of so-called carnival "dark rides." As couples wound through the tunnel of love by water or tracks, they were treated to alternating moments of romance (to set the mood) and fright (to encourage an arm over the shoulder).

6. THE MECHANICAL BULL

Until the 1970s, mechanical bulls were strictly used to train cowboys and rodeo competitors. Early practice bulls were basically large barrels suspended from four ropes (people could jostle the barrel by tugging on the ropes or using a pulley mechanism.) The mechanical version, however, was popularized by a Texas businessman who wanted to make his bars more popular.

7. THE WHIP

Patented in 1914, the first whip was made for Coney Island. The attraction-which tamely slings riders around an oval-is rare nowadays, but you can find original models scattered around some old-school parks.

8. THE WIPEOUT

The giant, revolving ride that moves around, up, and down in a wave-like fashion was originally a German attraction known as the Trabant. American innovators brought a bigger and better version stateside, dubbed it The Wipeout, and the rest is history ... as long as you're 48" tall.

9. TILT-A-WHIRL

The ride that launched a thousand stomachaches sprang from the mind of woodworker and waterslide maker Herbert W. Sellner in 1926. It made its debut at the Minnesota State Fair one year later. The story goes that Sellner experimented with the ride’s design by placing a chair on his kitchen table, making his son sit in it, and then rocking the table. The ride is now manufactured in Texas.

Disney Theme Park & Ride Guides

If you’re planning a Disney vacation and want to know which amusement attractions are best, the Disney ride guides are here to help! They have created guides for each of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks, plus Tokyo Disney Resort (Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland are coming soon). These guides provide objective scores for each park ride, show, and other attraction based upon how well-done those attractions are when experienced by their target audience. Fantasyland dark rides are reviewed with kids in mind, and intense roller coasters and funfair ride simulators are reviewed with teens and adults in mind.

In addition to basic information and ratings for each Disney attraction, since they know your time is limited, they’ve included strategy! They know your time in the theme parks might be limited, so they mention how you should prioritize popular attractions and whether they’re worth using FastPass or FastPass+ on (not all FastPass attractions are created equally–some don’t even need FastPass, but just have it to provide enough “FastPass capacity” to pull guests away from popular attractions).

Below are the guides, organized by resort with links for the guide to each park at that resort. We hope these guides prove handy when you’re planning your next Disney trip!

Things You May Not Know About Kang A Bounce Ride, Kangaroo Jump Ride for sale

If you are planning to head over to an theme park within the next few days, you might want to understand the distinction between a few of the rides that they have there, for example Kangaroo jump ride for sale and also the Techno Jump Ride. While these two rides may look a little similar when you initially obtain them, these are quite not the same as one other. Once you know the differences between them, it is possible to determine which ones you will definitely get on while you are on the amusement park.

The Kang A Bounce is fantastic for both young teens and youngsters that are tall enough to obtain onto it. The seats on the ride are shaped to appear the same as real kangaroos. Anyone who decides that they wish to hop on this ride can choose to sit into it alone or directly alongside one other person because there are two kangaroo seats placed together. Naturally, it will be fun to have on the ride while sitting right close to a relative or best friend.

This unique type of ride causes passengers to bounce up and down when they are spinning tea cups ride for sale with low price around inside a circle at exactly the same time for a lot of minutes. It is perfect for people who have a tendency to enjoy somewhat of a thrill, but would like never to hop on something that rises way too high off of the ground. It is not too quickly, but it is not very slow either.

The Techno Jump ride is even more of a thriller. It is ideal for teenagers, adults plus some children who are of sufficient age to acquire onto it. It might not be well suited for younger kids due to how fast it operates. Although it moves all around and spins around within a circle at the same time like the Hotfun fair rides - Kang Bounce, it will so at the much faster speed while going up way higher off the ground.

If you think Kang Bounce is not really thrilling enough to suit your needs as it will not move too fast, the Techno Jump is a good alternative truly worth trying. It is a lot like the greater advanced version from the ride. Whichever one you choose to hop on when you get to the theme park, you must be able to have a great deal of fun while staying entertained for hours.