An amusement park uses many illusions to immerse you in an experience that modifies your surroundings to give an impression of danger while keeping guests safe. Optical illusions, from mirrors and lighting to forced perspectives, have long traditions both in amusement parks and elsewhere. Computer graphics can make a desktop workstation into a movie studio, creating effective ride movies with special effects, without the need for real tracks, buildings or persons. Three-dimensional movies are also used to visualize scientific data, from the atom, to the inside of the body and through the universe, offering an educational component to immersive experiences.

Motion platforms make use of the limited precision in our perception of acceleration, slope and rotation. More recently, virtual reality (VR) has been combined with physical roller coasters to create VR coasters.

Keywords: mirrors, ray diagram, forced perspective, sensory misalignment, motion platforms, simulators, virtual reality, augmented reality

• Ynnerman  2010 Visualizing the medical data explosion. TEDxGöteborg, 2010
• Emmart 2010 A 3D Atlas of the universe
• Pendrill and Malcolm Burt 2020 Virtual reality, video screenshots and sensor data for a large drop tower ride. Physics Education, 55:055017
• Gordt and Heyse. Determining a position, aligning a virtual reality headset, and an amusement ride with a virtual reality headset. European patent office, EP3426366B1, 2020.

• Tennent et al: 2019 Abstract Machines: Overlaying Virtual Worlds on Physical Rides

• Marshall et al 2019 Sensory Alignment in Immersive Entertainment

• Tennent et al 2020 Soma Design and Sensory Misalignment

• Lance Hart, Blooloop: 13 of the world's best flying theatre attractions 

Optics

• Micklavzina et al 2014, Bringing physics, synchrotron light and probing neutrons to the public: a collaborative outreach. Physics Education, 49(2):221, 2014.
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Pepper's ghost

• Greenslade Jr  2011, Pepper's ghost, The Physics Teacher 49, 338
• Patterson and Zetie 2017Exorcising Pepper’s ghost. Physics Education 52, 023007
• Krivskova et al. 2016, How to delude your senses, Physics Education 52 013003

Other

Vekoma mad house