| 2.4 DELIRIUM, VERTIGO AND NAUSEA:
fig. 2.1 Dueling Dragons, a roller coaster at Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando. It’s eleven o’clock at night in Orlando, Florida, just a few minutes away from the entrance to the colossal Walt Disney World theme park. On a boulevard chock full of fast food restaurants, discount supermarkets and eccentric architecture that catch the driver’s attention we come to Old Town. This small amusement park has more in common with the old street fairs of yesteryear than today’s enormous theme parks. It’s a desolate place of entertainment, tough and in clear contrast to the balsamic realities found within the confines of Walt Disney World. In order to compete with the larger companies Old Town has brought together a series of extreme rides difficult to find in traditional theme parks. At this hour of the night you come across a few odd night owls searching for cheap thrills and gangs of teenagers out for a quick fix of adrenaline on half-a-dozen heart-stopping rides. Among such rides The Human Sling Shot stands out. The darkness of the night is broken by a single spotlight that shines dramatically on two seats inside a steel sphere. These seats, with their truly impressive aerodynamic safety harnesses that seem to come directly from the cockpit of some fighter jet, are part of a giant slingshot that launch its occupants towards the sky. Two 40-meter towers make up the fork of the slingshot while two latex ropes, like those used in bungee jumping, join the sides of the sphere to the tops of the towers. Onlookers loiter near the ride waiting for the next pair of passengers to board the Human Sling Shot. Finally a man and a woman, both about 40, are tied to the seats. Once the safety checks are complete the operator moves back and the countdown begins. The couple looks toward us, the gawking onlookers, but their eyes look right through us; they are concentrated, waiting for the inevitable, feeling the fear begin to take root in every corner of their bodies. The seats slowly tilt backwards forcing the passengers to look up at the blackness of the night, a blackness that will envelop them in just a few seconds. 3-2-1- Blast off! In the blink of an eye the sphere disappears. The passengers’ lungs let out a prolonged shout that trails off the further they get from the ground. In less than three seconds the couple has traveled 110 meters upwards feeling their bodies subjected to an acceleration of 5 g. The sudden change in the position of the body destabilizes the fluid in the inner ear affecting the sense of balance which in turn sets off a series of somatic responses including an increase in pulse rate and a shrinking of the stomach muscles. The effect of the acceleration makes the body feel extremely heavy. The heart beats rapidly in order to pump oxygen to the brain and the stomach muscles. This creates a temporary chemical imbalance which leads to a feeling of dizziness and nausea. When it reaches its peak the sphere feels the pull of gravity and begins its return to the ground at an acceleration speed of 9.8 meters per second. This speed doubles every second until the latex ropes tense up and the sphere bounces and begins to move upwards again. A series of successive bounces of the capsule in the following two minutes dissipates the tension in the ropes progressively until the sphere finally stabilizes and is lowered to let the passengers return to the ground. The adrenaline rush is clearly visible in the faces of these new victims of acceleration.
What compels humans to seek g force experiences? There are several possible answers to the question. Perhaps the most important is the desire to awaken a body that has been numbed by the media environment which makes up our daily lives. We spend a large part of our time without making any real physical efforts, working in front of our computers for hours, sitting in our cars or apathetically taking up residence on our sofas in front of the television set. Our organisms seem to want to get away from the physical passivity and find instead situations which force us to recover intense bodily experiences. Over the last decade interest in extreme sports that offer a constant challenge to the human body’s physical and sensorial capacities has increased tremendously. Among such sports we can include bungee jumping, skateboarding, hot-dogging, and free falling. The addiction to speed and somatic disorientation is not a recent development but rather can be traced back to an earlier moment in time: the chaotic universe of the great metropolis that was born with the industrial revolution. In the last few years there has been renewed interest in the social theories of Walter Benjamin, Georg Simmel and Siegfried Kracaue during the first half of the twentieth century. These thinkers describe how the urban phenomena radically changed the way humans perceive things. They discovered a new aspect of human experience that emerged from the enormous growth of cities throughout the nineteenth century. Georg Simmel, in a text written in 1903 that influenced both Benjamin and Kracauer, characterized the modern age by an “intensification of nervous stimulation”1. We could call this a neurological conception of the modern age. In other words, this is a description of the modern era not based on artistic movements and scientific revolutions but rather on a sensorial experience marked by, above all, the perceptual and physical shocks that create a different texture of subjective experience. What stands out about this experience are the perceptual and physical shocks that create a different rendering of the individual experience. In his essay Modernity, Hyperstimulus, and the Rise of Popular Sensationalism Ben Singer writes “Modernity implied a phenomenal - a specifically urban one - that was markedly quicker, more chaotic, fragmented and disorienting than in previous phases of human culture. Amid the unprecedented turbulence of the big cities traffic, noise, billboards, street signs, jostling crowds, window displays and advertisements, the individual faced a new intensity of sensory stimulation. The metropolis subjected the individual to a barrage of impressions, shocks, and jolts. The tempo of life also became more frenzied, sped up by new forms of rapid transportation, the pressing schedules of modern capitalism, and the ever-accelerating pace of the assembly line”2. In effect, life in the big city meant a radical change in the social habits of a rural society. In our post-industrial era we have assimilated the urban rhythm but we have had a few centuries to get used to its intense sensory rhythms. For the country people who left their villages in search of what promised to be a better life in the city, the resulting shock was extremely violent. Walter Benjamin suggested “the crowds of the large city produced fear, revulsion, and horror to those witnessing them for the first time”3. The new city dweller had to face a world of stimuli that was barely manageable. In the city everything moved, most of all the new transportation systems that came into use throughout the nineteenth century. The speed inherent to those systems changed the way the passenger perceived his and her body. The movements of a train, a streetcar, or an automobile often shook the passengers violently. A sudden speeding up of a car thrust the passenger against the seat causing him to feel heavier than usual. An unexpected slamming of the brakes had the opposite effect: the passenger would be hurtled forward causing a brief sensation of flight. Later, with the appearance of the first planes, the g force occurring during takeoff or sudden turbulence altered the passenger’s perception of corporeal reality. The mechanization of leisure time mimics the g forces experienced in modern transportation systems. Dizziness, fright, and speed began to be essential ingredients of amusement parks. In reference to amusement parks, Kracauer points out that “the aesthetics of shock emotions and the sensory stimulation involved can be seen as paralleling the texture of our urban and technological experiences”4. In the late nineteenth century, the public subjected itself to various mechanical rides to confirm it’s progressive adaptation to a world based on mechanical means of transport. New York’s legendary amusement park, Coney Island, was especially appreciated for its radical combination of machines and entertainment. Coney Island was a technological paradise built to both entertain and serve as an escape valve for the immigrants who inundated New York City in the early part of the twentieth century. The three separate parks that made up the complex, Luna Park, Steeplechase Park and Dreamland, had several elements in common: fantasy-filled construction, an overwhelming presence of electric lights, and a predominance of mechanical rides. Most of the visitors to Coney Island were young single people, which is why all sorts of rides involving movement were designed. These rides allowed for close physical contact amongst the public, something which was well appreciated. The Human Roulette, the Whirlwind, the Human Pool Table, or Shoot the Chutes, were some of the rides whose centrifugal and sliding motions caused people to be piled up one on top of the other, allowing for a significant relaxing of the Victorian moral code of the time. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle Freud develops the idea of the “stimulus shield” to describe the process of internalizing shock to form a protective shield against future shocks5. Trauma takes place when an outside stimulus pierces the individual’s protective shield. Freud developed this psychological model in the context of the First World War and the neurosis experienced by soldiers who suffered violent mental and physical traumas, but it can equally be applied to the new urban experiences. An individual reinforces his stimulus shield in places like amusement parks and cinemas. Both places allow him or her to receive a visual and sensory bombardment in a safe environment far from the intensity of urban life.
fig. 2.3 The Human Roulette at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, 1900. The public was subject to centrifugal forces on this mechanical ride.
fig. 2.4 Shooting the Chutes at Luna Park, Coney Island, 1900. This was the first water slide. The mechanical rides found at amusement parks not only distort our perceptual capacities but also emphasize the physical impact of a body placed within complex machinery. Among such rides one of the most important is the roller coaster. The vertigo, nausea, and dizziness produced by roller coasters offered the citizens of the nineteenth century the most extreme gravitational experience available at the time. The roller coaster is more than just a fairground attraction; it represents a central paradigm in the modern experience of mobility. Both Sergei Einsestein, the visionary filmmaker, and Orville Wright, aviation pioneer, were confirmed roller coaster addicts. The attraction both felt for the speed and the sensory over-stimulation that roller coaster provided was no doubt connected to their individual achievements in life: Einsestein’s impressive editing techniques and the Wright brothers first flight.
The ride Americans know as the Roller Coaster, in other parts of the world is known as the Russian Mountain, and as that name suggests, the origin of the ride is Russian and predates the industrial era by several centuries. Towards the end of the 16th century and at the beginnings of the 17th century wooden towers approximately 30 meters in height began to dot the Russian winter countryside. A platform at the top of the tower was the starting point for an ice ramp on which sleds would descend. Passenger and guide rode the sled downhill to the base of a second tower, which was climbed sled in hand for a second descent ending at the first tower. The ride was so popular that some ice toboggans near St. Petersburg were lit up at night by colored streetlights. Towards the end of the 18th century a French traveler, fascinated by ice toboggans, decided to create a version for the warmer climate of Paris. Instead of ice he built ramps with rollers on which the sleds could slide. In 1804 roller coasters began to appear around Paris; perhaps the most famous one was the Promenades Aeriennes, which consisted of an oval-shaped track that returned the cars to the starting point. After falling 25 meters the cars reached a top speed of 64 kilometers per hour, a considerable speed for the beginning of the 19th century. However the French public’s interest in roller coasters was short-lived. By the middle of the 19th century they had practically disappeared in Europe and the United States would become the site for the real technological development of these rides. In 1870 in the Pennsylvania mountains an abandoned mining train was modified to carry passengers. The train was originally used to carry coal down a hill from the mine to the town of Mauch Chunk. When the train was modified to accept tourists hundreds of people lined up willing to pay 10 cents for the privilege of rolling down the gentle hill at 10 kilometers an hour on what was the first American roller coaster. A few years later, in 1884, the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railroad was inaugurated at Coney Island in New York. La Marcus Adna Thompson, known as the father of gravity, and consisted of a track 180 meters long, built it. Top speed for this roller coaster was 6 miles an hour until it reached the end of the track where employees pushed the car up a hill so it could return to the starting point. The ride was so popular that Thompson got his $1,600 investment back in three weeks. Beyond any doubt the American public was ready to play with gravity. The construction of roller coasters quickly spread. In 1884 Charles Alcoke eliminated the return tracks, in use till then, with his Snake Train which was similar to the French ride Promenades Aeriennes and reached a maximum speed of 24 kilometers per hour. A year later the Gravity Pleasure Road appeared, introducing a new element: a chain that pulled the cars up to the top of the first slope. This innovation marks the introduction of the famous “clickety-clack” heard when climbing the first slope, a sound that creates a mixture of expectation and fear, the preamble to the inevitable fall awaiting the passengers. Soon looping roller coasters were being experimented with. The Coney Island Flip-Flap lasted 10 seconds carrying a two-person car down a slope, allowing the car to pick up enough speed to complete a nine-meter high loop. When the car entered the loop the passengers were subject to 12 g, a force whose strength caused many passenger serious neck problems. In the end the ride was discontinued due to the physical harm passengers suffered. Somewhat later the Loop-the-Loop appeared, another roller coaster that turned its passengers upside down. In order to decrease the g force of this ride, a tear-shaped loop was used instead of the perfect circle of the Flip-Flap. The ride’s economic success was limited however since it could only take two people at a time.
fig. 2.6 Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railroad was built in 1884 at Coney Island by la Marcus Adna Thomson, known as the father of gravity. Passengers were carried along a path 180 meters long. These new creations presented a challenge to Thompson, the roller coaster pioneer, who decided to create the Oriental Scenic Railway in Atlantic City in 1886. The cars climbed the first slope automatically and were then set free to the force of gravity. The car then entered a series of tunnels where the passengers could view picturesque oriental scenes. The ride was so successful that Thompson decided to found the L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway Company, dedicated to building roller coasters all over the United States. These scenic rides underscore the similarities between the roller coaster and modern train travel. Both trains and roller coasters place an individual inside a complex machine in movement that radically alters perception of time and space. We have had to learn to see and feel reality from a mechanical point of view aboard various devices that constantly challenge and alter one’s relation to the ground.
When a person boarded a streetcar, the urban version of the train, it was necessary to learn to trust this means of transport, which crossed the complex urban territory with such determination. If pedestrians had to be on guard and pay attention to the traffic in a maximum state of alertness to keeping from being run over, passengers had to do just the opposite: relax and give in to the means of transport no matter whatever was lying in wait along its path. This abandoning of the body to the logic of modern transportation was accompanied by a hyperstimulation of the ocular organ. The seated passenger contemplated a visual collage of disconnected fragments: the facades of buildings speeding by, temporary views of streets while passing through intersections, and sudden bursts of heads, horses, and other moving vehicles. The contrast between the over-stimulation of the eye and the passive body of the modern passenger created a state of repressed distress that could only be resolved by disassociation. Wolfgang Schivelbusch in his wonderful book, The Railroad Journey: Trains and Travel in the 19th Century comments on the modern passenger’s tendency to become sleepy, inwardly focused and to read more, all of which allow the traveler to withdraw from the journey and take refuge in a private world6. It was no longer possible aboard a moving train to pay attention to the details of the route, to take in the countryside or to stop for a breath of fresh air. Speed dispenses with the foreground, which, in the pre-industrial era, connected the traveler to the countryside instantly. The railroad cut through the countryside creating a new post-human visual order, a mechanical gaze that went beyond the individual’s sensory abilities.
The threat of an accident was continually present in early train travel. Train passengers, as Schivelbusch points out, enjoyed a two-sided relationship with the trip. On one hand they were attracted by the pleasure speed provided, by the feeling of omnipotence knowing they were aboard a “bullet” streaking across the land at superhuman speeds. At the same time, however, there was a genuine fear of collision whose psychological effects led to anxiety, phobias, and in many cases hysteria. This imagining of disaster was always present in the expectations of the nineteenth century citizen. The illustrated newspapers of the day were careful to feed the traveler’s fear reporting regularly on train accidents, which until the end of the nineteenth century happened relatively frequently. The horror evoked by a body mutilated by the incalculable mechanical power of a train was added to the already-existing anxiety of a society invaded by mechanical rhythms. The accidents taking place in factories, another horrible example of encounters between humans and machines, provided another reason for the lack of trust in the technologies of the modern age. In current times roller coasters continue to be important sensory and physiological entertainment machines for a technologically advanced world. Today’s roller coasters, however, allow their passenger to experiment with mind-boggling gravitational experiences of an intensity inconceivable in the past. The significant change initiated in the postwar period was the introduction of tubular steel tracks. The first roller coaster to use steel tracks was the Matterhorn at Disneyland, the grandfather of today’s theme parks. The Matterhorn, a replica of the Swiss mountain of the same name, brought back the idea of the original Russian ice toboggans. The cars were even designed as bobsleds. This roller coaster inspired a new generation of steel roller coasters that slid over their tracks so smoothly they emulated flight. They also made it possible for designers to build loops and hairpin turns unthinkable for wooden roller coasters. The principal consideration for the roller coaster designer is the law of gravity. The train is set free at the highest point possible to increase the power of the gravitational energy. This potential energy is what will be released along the roller coaster’s path. No slope can be higher than the original one since to climb it would require more energy than the car has. The speed is determined by the height and the inclination of the first slope. Other factors are also calculated such as loss due to friction between the wheels and the tracks, and wind drag. Another important consideration is the g force the ride is going to exert; g’s are used as units of measurement. g forces only occur during acceleration, meaning during a change in the rate of fall of a body attracted by the Earth’s gravity. There are positive g forces, occurring in the valley between one peak and the next when the passenger’s body feels heavier, and negative g forces, taking place when the roller coaster car speeds over the peak causing the passengers to feel weightless. When designing roller coasters, in addition to knowledge of engineering and physics, it is also necessary to consult doctors to determine the biomechanical impact of any new ride, in order to prevent passengers from suffering major injuries.
fig. 2.10 The Riddler´s Revenge is a roller coaster where riders stand up. It is located at the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Los Angeles. In recent years roller coasters with especially complex paths have been designed. This is thanks to sophisticated computer programs that allow engineers to create increasingly daring designs. Today speeds of more then 160 kilometers per hour are being achieved, 90-degree slopes are common and passengers are being subjected to forces of up to 6 g. The Millennium Force ride at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio has a first drop of 93 meters, a height greater than that of the Statue of Liberty. In addition to these extremely fast roller coasters, called hyper-roller coasters, there are suspended roller coasters: the cars hang down from a single rail allowing the passengers legs to dangle in the air. The next innovation is the flying roller coaster with its sunken seats. This ride is designed to give its passengers the feeling that they are flying. The subject soars across the landscape without any visual interference of the ride. The architecture of these colossal structures is especially attractive. Both the tracks and the beams that anchor them in place are painted in brilliant comic book colors. It should be no surprise that these rides are always located in the most strategic site in the park. It’s just as important to ride on the roller coaster as it is to watch others suffer its winding path. The machinery of this transport system, built exclusively to elicit a primordial scream from its passengers, is totally exposed and available for all to see. In an age when considerable cognitive effort is required to be able to process all the technology that surrounds us – above all the computer and its labyrinthian circuits – the roller coaster offers us a refreshing reminder of the power of a machine. The roar of its car flying across the rails fascinates and terrifies us at the same time. Roller coasters offer us clear example of the sensory and physiological impact that our technology is having on us.
fig. 2.11 X is the first four-dimensional roller coaster. In addition to moving along a winding path the passenger seats revolve 360 degrees forwards and backward. This ride is located at the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Los Angeles The hottest development of the last few years is the LIM (linear induction motor) system. These motors literally launch the passengers via magnetic forces, which allow the cars to go from a static position to over 150 kilometers per hour in little more than two seconds. This launching system, which has even attracted NASA engineers, was put into operation with the inauguration of the Thrust Air 2000, a roller coaster that has completely revolutionized the amusement park industry. Mr. Freeze, located at the Six Flags amusement park in St. Louis, Missouri, is amongst the new generation of roller coasters. Starting from a stationary position, the LIMs launch the train along the tracks pushing the passenger into their seats with strength of 1.5 g. When the train climbs the first totally vertical slope the passengers weigh four times their normal weight. When it reaches the top of the slope the train turns over and begins its 73-meter vertical descent. After a 120-degree inversion curve the base of the tower is reached, where a second set of LIMs push the train further upwards on its last climb until it finally reaches its highest point. Passengers feel about three seconds of weightlessness before they begin their return journey following the same path but in the opposite direction. When the fall begins the LIMs switch the direction of the electromagnetic force generating enough power for the train to reach the starting point again. Another gravitational goliath that uses LIM technology is the Jokers Jinx at Six Flags America in Maryland whose gargantuan knot of tracks produces panic just by looking at it. There is also the Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California. With the help of the LIM system this roller coaster hurls its passengers 20 stories straight up in less than six seconds.
fig. 2.12 The Xcelerator uses linear induction motors to shoot its cars twenty stories upwards in less than six seconds. It is located at Knott’s Berry Farm in Orange County, California. The LIM system is making an old dream come true for roller coaster designers: to free themselves from the force of gravity. Now it is no longer necessary to depend on gravity’s kinetic energy to propel their trains. The necessary force can be obtained artificially at any point on the roller coaster’s path, which has led to an increase in the types of inversions, vertical climbs and nosedives. The company responsible for the system, S & S Power Inc. had previously patented tower rides. The Double Shots, Space Shots and Turbo Drops are launch and free fall towers that have begun to appear in major amusement parks all over the world. Perhaps the most outstanding of these towers is the one on Las Vegas’ Stratosphere, the third tallest building in the U.S. Upon reaching the top of the Stratosphere, the visitor has the choice of taking in the panorama of the Nevada desert from the revolving restaurant, or go up one more floor out onto the tower’s roof and experience the g forces of the world’s highest ride: the Big Shot, a tower with a row of four seats on each of its four sides. While the seats rest at the base of the tower, visitors are strapped in. After a few endless seconds the car is hurtled straight up using the magnetic LIM system. After shooting up 50 meters at 72 kilometers per hour, the car begins to descend rapidly, creating a three-second feeling of weightlessness. This action is repeated three times, both delighting and terrorizing its occupants at the same time. In addition to the breathtaking speed at which the car climbs the tower we have to keep in mind the already considerable height of the Stratosphere, which only serves to increase the ride’s dizzying effect. As the “survivors” get off the ride their return to Earth is celebrated with Elvis Presley singing “Viva Las Vegas”.
A roller coaster runs thought the New York casino in Las Vegas. In recent years, casinos and theme parks have come together in this resort town
fig. 2.14 The Turbo Drop ride is a launch tower that shoots riders to a height of 40 meters in two and a half seconds subjecting them to a 4 g acceleration and two to three seconds of weightlessness. Mass entertainment meccas have pulled into their orbit the latest generation of gravitational experiences. Both Las Vegas and Orlando have their share of rides that subject their “victims” to extreme conditions. To this end they have left behind the roller coaster’s tracks, developing variations of bungee jumping. Bungee jumping’s origin can be traced back to the Vanuatu Islands in the Pacific where for centuries the natives have celebrated the harvest by throwing themselves off a tower with scarcely a vine tied to their feet. Members of the University of the Oxford Extreme Sports Club saw a documentary on the Vanuatu jumpers and decided to imitate them performing a series of jumps back in the sixties. New Zealander A.J. Hackett saw a video of these jumps and his imagination was fired. In association with Henry Van Asch in 1988 he created the first company dedicated to bungee jumping and whose inaugural jump was off the Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand. On that first day 28 people paid $75 to jump into empty space equipped with only a latex rope tied around their feet to keep them from smashing into the ground. Today more than 500,000 people have bungee jumped in one of the four concessions run by A.J. Hackett in New Zealand alone. His latest development is the Ledge Sky Swing where after a free-fall the participant is hurtled across a giant arch over the city of Queenstown. Hackett’s Las Vegas concession is a bit more mundane. In this case the jumper is lifted up to a raised platform in an elevator shaped like a space capsule. After tying the latex ropes to his feet — the umbilical chord that will save his life — the participant jumps off above an asphalt parking lot.
The controlled “suicide” of bungee jumping has been through numerous changes, including the sling shot mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Another variation is Skycoaster, a company that has built giant swings in a number of amusement parks throughout the world. The biggest of these rides is in Orlando. Instead of sitting down on a board like we do on traditional swings found at children’s playgrounds, the rider dons a harness with a hook. Two ropes are attached to the hook, one will raise the harness ninety meters in the air, the other allows it to swing once released from the top. After a few heart-stopping seconds of contemplating the hair-raising fall to come, he or she is released, first nose-diving then slowly tracing a broad arc over the ground. On the other side of the country, in Wisconsin, we can find the Extreme World amusement park specializing in extreme rides. Among them is Terminal Velocity, the only ride in the world that allows you to free-fall without any type of attachment. The experience begins with a lift upwards in an elevator. Upon reaching the highest point the subject gets into position and the elevator’s trapdoor is opened. After a fall of approximately 100 meters an enormous net equipped with special shock absorbers catches the thrill-seeker.
fig. 2.16 Terminal Velocity at Extreme World is the world’s only free-fall ride without any type of security rope for the participant. A net breaks the participant’s fall after dropping almost 100 meters. If what the customer really wants is an endless freefall then he will have to go back to Orlando where SkyVenture is located. This is a building housing a huge vertical wind tunnel that blasts air from the floor of the room. The blast of air is so strong that it can keep a person floating as if performing a free fall jump. However, in contrast to the free fall, the SkyVenture drop doesn’t end when you reach the ground but rather continues as long as the giant propeller fan is on. SkyVenture is used as a training site for devotees of free falling and allows the participant to get used to maneuvering the body in these special somatic conditions. Whereas wind tunnels are generally used to test the aerodynamics of airplanes, on this occasion it is the individual whose aerodynamics are being tested.
This stationary fall is especially representative of the type of gravitational experiences currently invading amusement parks. These places help the individual to tame fears of the reality-transforming powers of contemporary technologies. At the same time they train us to handle states of altered gravity. We are witnessing a genuine somatic reorientation of the body, a sort of collective training for the masses who seem to be getting ready for a future journey far from Earth. Whether we really have escaped from the Earth’s gravity or not, the mechanization of motion in the modern age has turned us all into astronauts.
fig. 2.18 The interior of SkyVenture, a skydiving training center, offers instruction on how to control your body during a free-fall. Notes
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