Re: Katoomba Scenic Railway not steepest?

["Vaughan Williamson" <vaughan.williamson@tafensw.edu.au>]

Homer wrote in message <36C95DDE.4A27227B@mail.usyd.edu.au>...
>> (BTW, how do you express the gradient of a lift in the percentage
system -
>> infinity%??!!
>> It's 1 in 0 or, for that matter, anything you like in 0, in the
"British"
>> system".)
>>
>
>want to get real mathematical?  *evil grin*
>its actually undefined in both %age and rise-over-run terms, 'cos you
can't
>divide by zero remember!
>but infinity% is the best approximation you can get, then in the
gradient
>version, the best way to describe
>it i think would be 'the limit as x approaches infinity of x in 1'
>
>have i been doing to much maths at uni?:D
>
What is the gradient of the corkscrew roller coaster at Seaworld as it
goes down the first big drop? Presumably, the velocity of the roller
coaster is such that even when upside-down (what gradient then???) it's
under rail idler wheels never are worked. The idler wheels are only if
the train stalled (remember some roller-coaster in the US did that a few
years back) aren't they?
        regards
        Vaughan.