This past summer, my family and I went to Disney's California Adventure Park. While there, we rode many rides, including the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The Tower of Terror is based on an old movie in which a bolt of lightning strikes the Hollywood Tower hotel, causing the elevator to malfunction and fall, killing whoever was inside of it.
This attraction takes the rider on a simulation elevator freefall in an elevator car. However, it isn't just freefall at the rate of 9.8 m/s2. The car is pulled down at a faster acceleration, although I didn't think about it at the time. Now I know that it is faster because during the ride, I could feel the end of my hair rising, and I also felt myself rising above the seat, being held down only by the seat belts. That means that the downward acceleration of the elevator car had to have been higher than that of gravity to overcome the 9.8m/s2, causing the "floaty" sensation.
And yes, this is much like what our field trip to the elevator would have been like, except in a much more extreme form, thank you very much. Next time I ride this ride, I'll be sure to think about Doc's visual hand motion thing, and while I'm screaming my head off, I'll explain to everyone who's riding what's happening. :]
