Cannonball Loop: World's Most Dangerous Waterslide

Alex

That waterslide that John posted a couple of days ago sure looked dangerous, but believe it or not, there's one even MORE dangerous. In fact, it was so dangerous that it was shut down by park safety.

io9 has the story of the legendary "Canonball Loop" at Action Park in Vernon Township, New Jersey:

There was however one ride that was too extreme even for Action Park. This water slide flipped the bird at physics so rudely that it was open for a single summer and then abandoned like a drainage pipe along the River Styx. We are referring to the infamous, gravity-defying Cannonball Loop.

Due to its special status as one of the most monumentally bad ideas in theme park history, the Loop has an aura of mystery surrounding it. According to the most common reports circulating around the internet, the Loop was open for one month during the summer of 1985 before being shut down by the New Jersey Carnival Amusement Ride Safety Advisory Board. Only a few brave souls rode the loop, many of them park employees who were bribed into testing it. According to one rumor, test dummies subjected to the Cannonball Loop came out missing limbs.

Link | More at Weird NJ

Rhett Allain of Wired did physics calculation on the Canonball Loop and why it's so dangerous:

With a radius of 3 meters, this gives an acceleration of 10.2 g’s. Wow. That is just crazy. If you are going any slower, you wouldn’t make it over the loop. Any faster and you might die from the massive acceleration.


Comments (10)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

We spent many summer days at Action Park, and not once did I ever see anyone ride that. Honestly though, I think the Alpine slide was just as dangerous, and a helluva lot more fun anyway.
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Yeah, accident park, traction park. The alpine slide was a good place to lose half of your skin to road rash. I had a bunch of friends who worked there, and they were usually drunk or stoned the whole day. Nothing like hiring teenagers, not really training them, and letting them run the place.Can't believe that place was open so long.
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Caltrops. Or, uhh... predatory animals from a planet that exists in only two dimensions but has been recently hit by a 3 dimensional comet, thus exposing the native flora and fauna to the still unfamiliar realm of 'up...' Look at them, blindly reaching out toward an infinity that they never knew existed. Aww... Cute little 2-D sharks...
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These are for popping tires. No matter how they are dropped they always have a blade facing upwards. Cops use these when they need to blow the tires out of a moving car. You just drop a bunch of them on the road in front of a moving vehicle.
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LOL! I thought of Caltrops as well. Maybe an artsy fartsy version on those weapons? Maybe we can throw a couple of those around to prevent people from walking on our lawns!
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Tetsubishi (or makibishi), caltrops used by ninjas against pursuers on foot (not car tires, sorry, although they would prove useful against that too ;)
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These are two fine examples of quadraline spinaks, used in the casual salination of seawater in a process called 'Pavelechion's circumscribance' after its inventor L. Membel Pavelechion. Although why the process works has never been explained satisfactorily to the Nobel commision, it is still used worldwide and other places.
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no these are for drywall.. you put them on the side so that you can put two together side by side without holding them while you screw them to the wall
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They are used to trip horses up. If someone was being chased by a horse or whatever they would drop loads of these behind them, whichever way they fall they always have a point upwards, the horse stands on it is in great pain so trips or stops running.
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I was going to post and say caltrops, but it seems everybody else got there first, so I reckon it's a caltrophone - a nine foot tall percussion instrument in the shape of a caltrop.
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OKAY, so who the hell stole my name and used my suggestion??! This is fraud, guilty parties shall be found and prosecuted accordingly. Now, with the legal proceedings out of the way, I shall take a second glance at the picture and hazard a guess ....... ah! no doubt about it its a banana on the left and definately tom selleck lying down on the right.
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I'm with the others who say calthrops, the ancient Ninja weapon of fleeing choice. Either way you throw them on the ground, one pair of sharp tips will ensure a speedy getaway.
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These are caltrops and there were very effectivly used by the Ninja anciently against the Samurai. At best the Samurai would be wearing easily penetrated sandals. They certainly could be used against tires these days so both trains of thought are correct concerning these.
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I used to make these in school out of two staples twisted together and put them on peoples seats. Yup there's many a sore butt thanks to me. Now I'd probably be expelled or something. (I only ever got one teacher)

Brings back great memories.
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These are called caltrops. If one feels one's life is in danger, one simply scatters these ingenious little creatures about the room. No matter how they are dropped, one pointy end is always facing up, ready to pierce the foot of a would-be attacker.
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These are easily recognizible as mandrophlepes. They're commonly used to extract copper from streams and riverbanks. With copper prices at an all time high, I need to git me some.
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