Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum4,000 MPH Trains Could Revolutionize Transportation
New York to London in an hour? That might be in the future if high-speed vac-trains move from concept to reality.
Although it sounds futuristic, the concept of a vacuum train dates back more than 100 years to Robert Goddard, an American engineer. Goddard also happened to design the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Since then, many designs have appeared, but the concept has always remained the same: take all the air out of a sealed tube and shoot a train through it.
http://www.energyboom.com/transportation/4000-mph-trains-could-revolutionize-transportation
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)Except much scarier.
2on2u
(1,843 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)Kablooie
(18,648 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Accelerating from a standing stop to 5,000 miles per hour would only take about 4 minutes if you limit the acceleration to 1 gravity. So basically for 4 minutes at the beginning and end of the trip you'd feel like you were lying on your back.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)How long would it be till the tunnel collapses. Some other country would have to build it, and keep it safe.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Maintaining that vacuum would require enormous amounts of energy. Plus, the risk of a catastrophic accident if the tube sprung a leak would be immense.
Interesting science fiction, though. We can easily create a vacuum. There are very good reasons why this has not been done already.
-Laelth
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)The technology is actually so basic that the idea has been around for more than 100 years. And it's not even so much the cost of the vacuum, but the cost of drilling the tunnel and creating the mag-lev line. The estimated cost of a NY to LA line back in the '70s was $1 trillion dollars, or $3.6 trillion adjusted for inflation. Probably a lot less now, since we're better at drilling and tunneling, but it would still be a metric shitload of money.
As an aside, hey, I just hit my 24,000th post.
longship
(40,416 posts)Plus, how to properly put on the diapers for when you shit your pants. (We don't want any free floating feces, do we?)
I'd rather ride a space elevator. (But don't let me get started about terrorist targets with that fixed target.)