The Two Main Coasters
The two main types of roller coaster are Wooden Coaster and Steel Coasters. Wooden coasters offer a more "wild" ride and are usually rougher then steel coasters. Wooden coasters are also less capable of many things that a steel coaster can do like inversions. Steel Coasters provide a smoother ride than wooden coaster and hold almost all the world records for roller coasters. Steel roller coasters can also have more features like Loops, Zero-G Rolls, Corkscrews, and Barrel Rolls.
Height of Roller Coasters
The roller coaster is also sorted by height. There are four different types of roller coaster depending on the height. The first type is a Kiddie coaster and this is a roller coaster that is specifically designed for families and younger riders and a example is Kingdom Coaster at "Dutch Wonderland". The second type of height definition is a Hyper/Mega Coaster which has a height or drop that ranges form 200 feet to 299 feet and it must complete a full circuit. The Hyper/Mega Coaster is the dominating type of roller coaster throughout the world, an example is Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure. The third type of height definition is a Giga Coaster, this coaster has a height or drop from 300 feet to 399 feet and completes a full circuit, an example of this is Millennium Force. The fourth type of coaster is a Strata Coaster, a strata coaster is a type of coaster with a height or drop that is 400 feet or more and completes a full circuit. Only two strata coasters have been built. The first was Top Thrill Dragster opened in 2003 at a height of 420 feet and the second was Kingda Ka opened in 2005 at a height of 456 feet.