Japanese Train Sets A Speed Record Of 581 kph

Azuma writes "Last night, on December 2, a high-speed Japanese train set a new record of 581 kph, breaking its own previous record. The new Maglev high speed had real passengers on board this time. They proved that the distance between Osaka and Tokyo can be covered in one hour's time. However, we wouldn't see real trains for a while now since the cost is prohibitively expensive at this time. However, they expect that the cost would come down over the next 20 years. This seems to be the future of transportation, at least in Japan. Here is a detailed article from The Japan Times."

Comments

Re:361MPH

[sznupi]

actually, I consider metric system to be the least artificial of them all - because it was based on simple principles. EVERYBODY on this planet, if they know this very simple principles can reproduce SI units (the simplest example is meter: take the part of meridian between equator and pole and divine it by 10000 - THIS is simple and natural. Using factors that are something like 1,758648 - this is unnatural). And please don't tell me that I'm biased because my country uses SI - for example, even though Fahrenheit scale was invented here, few hundred km from where I live (so I should be proud...), I find it idiotic too - temperature scale based on "normal" body temperature and outside temperature can't be any different than that (what person's temperature? perhaps he had fever? or was he dying and cold? what time of the year was it? what weather was outside?). As you can see, there's no way the original principles of Fahrenheit scale can tell us how this scale looks exactly - so reccurent principles were added later - that's what I call artificial. Celsius scale on the other hand...from the beginning it was "unfreeze water at sea level, boil water, divine by 100 - eventually do that few times, days apart, to minimise factor of pressure changes - you have a scale". Fully reproductable. Oh, and if somebody will publish scientific paper with units different than SI...well, if he wants to be laughed at, why not, go ahead ;P

In Soviet Russia...

[hughk]

The country is immense. If I remember my geography right, it straddles nine timezones. Rail was established during the Czar time and was developed under the Soviets and in post Soviet Russia it is still working well.

Planes can move people but they aren't so economical for many kinds of manufactured goods. Trucks are a non-issue for the distances involved. Planes can only move a limited number of people and currently too many people travel between St. Petersburg and Moscow, so a high-speed rail link has been proposed.