Brendan Walker originally trained and worked as an aeronautical engineer, but now has a far more thrilling job title, quite literally - he’s a thrill engineer.

He’s been working with theme parks to help create the most exciting rollercoasters, using design principles to craft extreme, human emotional experiences to the rides.

He tells us why people have a love/hate relationship with rollercoasters, the fine line between fun and fear, how to get your thrills in lockdown and most importantly, where the best place to sit on a rollercoaster might be.

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This podcast was supported by brilliant.org, helping people build quantitative skills in maths, science, and computer science with fun and challenging interactive explorations.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

• Elisa Raffaella Ferrè: What happens to the brain in space?
• Jim Davies: How do you use your imagination?
• Dr Erin Macdonald: Is there science in Star Trek?
• Matt Parker: What happens when maths goes horribly, horribly wrong?
• Kathryn D. Sullivan: What is it really like to walk in space?
• Sir David Spiegelhalter: There's no such thing as Blue Monday

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