• 9point6@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Okay, so apart from all the downsides of building electromagnets this massive anywhere near a population centre:

    Would a rail gun train like this actually remotely work or is it going to turn the train and everything inside into plasma due to air resistance before you think about how you slow it down again

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Provided they can produce enough additional velocity to put the train on a ballistic arc through the next ring, it wouldn’t need to go that fast. I imagine it would bounce slowly as it passed through each ring.

      That is until there’s a stiff crosswind and you’re fired at hundreds of miles an hour into an powerfully electrified ring of solid steel. But that won’t be a problem for you for long.

    • antidote101@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s probably going to kill anyone with a pacemaker or other sensitive medical technology near by, not to mention wreck phones and other electronic equipment.

  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Whatever this is, it can’t possible by cheaper, safer or more accessible than a normal train.

    “Sir, instead of placing down 30,000 lbs of steel and wood for every 1/8th mile of train travel, we can build a 10 story tower every 1/8th mile with 300,000 lbs of steel, wood and brick, and mount a 500 million dollar specialized magnet larger than the average home to the roof so we can yeet a bus sized bullet filled with victims passengers all the way from 5th street to 11th street. This will surely decrease the number of railroad crossing accidents to zero. However, we can’t promise an errant gust of wind doesn’t obliterate a city block. And the birds are, frankly, fucked, Sir.”

  • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    Imagine riding this vehicle.

    Between each of the hoops, they’re in freefall. Which means that passing the hoop needs to arrest the fall and impart enough upwards velocity to make it to the next hoop (maybe half a second away?)

    The effect on the passengers would be a quickly alternating weightlessness followed by a strong kick in the ass. Imagine driving full speed on a bumpy as fuck dirt road.

    Even if this design was practical to construct (it’s not) and cheaper to operate (it wouldn’t be), nobody would want to ride it.