Project Report


Research Introduction

Did you know that it was $0.50 to ride a Ferris wheel in the old days?  The ride was 20 minutes long!  I'm going to teach you some interesting facts about the history of amusement parks, the modern day of amusement parks, and the Ferris wheel and roller coaster.  I will also tell you about a survey I did and my interview with David Mandt.

History

Amusement parks have a lot of unique history along with different facets.  One hundred years ago, Disneyland, Six Flags over Texas, and other amusement parks were not here.  Europe was the first place to have amusement parks and the ideas came from pleasure gardens and fairs.  In the United States, examples were world's fairs and expositions. 

The oldest amusement park in the world is called Bakken.  It opened in 1583 in Klampenborg, Denmark and is still in operation today.  In 1851, world's fairs or expositions began.  The "Golden Age" of amusement parks came in the 1920's when people started to work less, and had extra money and time.  They wanted to have an outside experience to be entertained.  This being so, caused amusement parks to be built at a rapid pace.  The industry built better and more expensive attractions.  People wanted more entertainment and that is what they got.  The industry built fiercer and more thrilling rides.  This was a very exciting time for roller coasters.  In the 1930's, the great depression was a cause of the "decline of the Amusement Park Industry".  TV was invented in the 1940's and took the attention of families away from amusement parks.  During the war, in the 1950's, the world changed in many ways, including the ways of how people spent their time.  This led to the burning down and closing of amusement parks.  Some were even knocked over to make room for suburban living and other developments.  In 1964, Steeplechase Park, once the "King" of amusement parks, closed for the last time.  The only amusement parks that weren't destroyed did so because they beat the odds.  

Modern day

Today is just as exciting as ever!  The amusement park industry has become larger since the 1980’s.  Parks can now be larger because corporations have enough money to build larger parks and advertise by having TV programs, mail advertisements, toys, movies and much more.  This makes people want to visit the park and join in the fun.  The industry is better because of everything from large worldwide theme parks to smaller ones.  There are also different kinds of theme parks.  A theme park is a kind of amusement park that is built around a common theme.  An example of a worldwide theme park would be Disneyland.  An example of a smaller or medium sized theme park would be the Six Flags parks.  In the 1990s, mall amusement parks showed up.  Mall amusement parks contain a small amount of rides, usually in a shopping mall's parking lot.  As you can see, amusement parks can be anything from a big family vacation to a place to go for a birthday party in your hometown. 

Ferris Wheels

Ferris wheels are antiques in a way.  Turning objects around is centuries old.  Pleasure wheels are old names for wheels somewhat like Ferris wheels, and they were turned by hand.  The United States used pleasure wheels in 1848.  In 1890, people still enjoyed pleasure wheels.  Old wheels helped form Ferris wheel future.  George Washington Gale Ferris was the inventor of the Ferris wheel.  His first Ferris wheel was used at the Columbian Exposition and it was not completed when the exposition started.  People thought it wouldn't be finished before the exposition ended, however it was.  As the nineteen weeks of the fair passed, over one million people rode the ride.  Some people didn't ever get to be a passenger of that first Ferris wheel.

Roller Coasters

Roller coasters aren’t just built by hand, they take lots of work.  They also have their own language.  The term "G forces" is commonly used when discussing roller coaster development.  G forces are gravitational activity on a person or object.  Roller coasters were very important to the amusement park industry.  Did you know that the roller coaster is the amusement park industry's symbol? The roller coaster, even better than the Ferris wheel, is the amusement park's best development.  In the world there are more than 1,000 coasters.  Over half of them are placed in North America.

Modern roller coaster engineering is complicated.  For the engineering of one coaster it took thousands of layouts, blueprints, and plans.  Engineers used wood or Styrofoam models.  They modified and recalculated if there were too many G forces.  The first stage to building a roller coaster is to computer build. Computers track the amount of G forces. 

Survey

For my project, I did a survey of 40 people.  The survey asked three questions: 1) Have you ever been to an amusement park?  2) What is your favorite amusement park?  3) What is your favorite thing to do at an amusement park?  There were many different answers from different people.  The answers varied from yes or no to roller coasters or food, from people watching to rides in general. There were other answers I could tell you about.  However, there are too many!  These are the graphs that I made with my survey data: 

Conclusion

The amusement park industry had a complicated past and an exciting present.  The industry had a leap into success, but then was nearly destroyed by war and the great depression.  Now the industry is back on it's feet and is riding the coaster of success into the future.  This report has describe many facts such as, facts about the history and the modern day of amusement parks, facts about the amusement park's Ferris wheels and roller coasters, and about a survey about the opinions people have about amusement parks.  You will find out who helped me with my project and the products I created.  Last but not least, you will hear about my interview with David Mandt.
 

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