Amazing Dad Builds A Roller Coaster For His Son In Backyard
The Engineer
Children tend to ask for many things and while some requests can be entertained, there are some requests that most of the parents would say No to. Will Pemble is not among those parents and when his son asked if they could have a roller-coaster in their house (their backyard), the 50 year old dad made a decision, which his son would never forget; he said yes.
Will Pemble lives in San Francisco and is an e-commerce professional who has a wife and two children. The reason why he said yes to the son’s request was because he wanted to depict to his children that anything is possible once you put your mind to it and partly because he himself is a physics enthusiast and saw this as an opportunity to teach some physics and basic science to his kids.
Will writes on his blog; ‘How cool would it be for my kids to say when they’re my age, ‘I built a rollercoaster with my dad in the backyard. I knew this was something they would always remember. I couldn’t think of a single good reason to say no.’
Mr. Will recalls how this all started back in fall 2013 when the family was coming back from a local theme park. In his own words; ‘we were just back from one of many amusement park trips and Lyle asked a simple question: ‘Why don’t we build a rollercoaster, Dad?’ It took them roughly 300 hours and finally they were able to construct a 180 ft worth of track in a backyard that measures up to only 1/4th of an acre.
According to Will, he loves the roller coaster because it has helped him bring three things he cherishes most together; Physics, fun and family. He says on his blog that the whole family participated in the project and neighbours would regularly check in to see how the family was doing. Will also writes that they keep adding to and modifying the roller coaster.
However, he also recalls the problems and writes; ‘The track was going up fast and beautiful and we were in high spirits as we ran the new cart down the new track during our first test. Then it happened!” said Will. The cart crashed three times before it started functioning again. “It was time for us to switch from being super pleased with ourselves into a slightly less comfortable, but ultimately more productive mode: namely, learning from Roller Coaster Cart Crash mode!’
If you’re thinking that the dad is a genius over here, wait till you get this; Lyle made use of a software, which is similar to CAD in order to simulate the roller coaster and this helped with the design of the roller coaster. Are we looking at a family of genius people or what?!
To the question if Mr. Will Pemble will be constructing such roller coaster rides for other people as well, he responds; ‘If I’m honest, I can’t think of a single good reason to say no, so that could well happen in the future. Our mission is purely to share our love of physics, family, and fun so one thing has just led to another. It’s amazing that all of this came from a kid asking one simple question and a dad saying yes.’
