To learn more about these soggy thrill rides, Valerie and Margie visited their favorite water parks to investigate: What makes a great waterslide? They compared two different waterslides: the "Flash Flood" and the "Salsa Twist". They thought about what makes a ride fun, then measured two things: how fast and how "wild" each ride was. First, Valerie rode each slide several times, timing her ride with a stopwatch. Then they found out the length of each ride and divided the length by the average time to get her speed. Next, Margie rode each ride several times with a mazometer, a plastic-covered maze. As she rode down the slide, she tried to follow the maze with a grease pencil.