An irregularity in the track less than one millimeter in size such as a rivet that is not perfectly flush or a bit of weld splatter can create sudden forces on the order of 4 to 6 Gs. Forces of this order exerted across the body even for just a few milliseconds could present the danger of whiplash. Problems like this are normally impossible to see with the naked eye and are difficult to locate because the riders cannot generally discern the precise point in the ride at which they felt discomfort. For these reasons, Systems and Safety Consultancy several years ago decided that it was important to accurately measure the forces exerted on the rider over very short time intervals. The company at first had difficulty finding a suitable data acquisition system.
Conventional instruments are delicate, heavy and require line power.
These were all major drawbacks in this application. First of all, the rides that are evaluated by the company are located all over the world. Simply carrying a bulky system to the site of the ride would be an arduous task. Another problem was that power was obviously not available on the roller coaster. This meant that it would be necessary to set up an expensive and finicky data telemetry system between the roller coaster and the instrument.