You feel light. You feel heavy. You're wrong-side up and upside wrong.
Welcome to the roller coaster thrill.
According to Science, the rush a coaster brings is because of constant changes on your body and you have two principles of physics to thank: gravity and acceleration.
When the coaster dives down a steep hill, you feel an upward pull as acceleration lifts you up, and gravity pulls you down at the same time.
If the coaster is going fast enough, you experience the same sense of weightlessness as a skydiver in free fall. You might not realize it but one of the reasons this seems thrilling is that your body, organs and muscles are accelerating at different times. Your organs are not in left in place as they normally are but instead they are each weightless. That is what makes the thrill hill feeling.
When the coaster goes fast up a steep hill, the gravity and acceleration pull you in the same direction, making you feel heavier.
"If you were to sit on a scale during a roller coaster ride, you would see your weight change from point to point on the track," writes Tom Harris, structural engineer, for Science.
That is the physics of the experience, but part of the tingle is the sensory experience. You feel the air. You see the height. You see you are upside down. You feel yourself pressing against the seat.
You know you are going fast because you see yourself passing structures. But you never actually feel velocity. You only feel change in velocity (acceleration).
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