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University Students Made a Working Model Hyperloop
derekmead writes: Elon Musk's Hyperloop gets people excited. Promise the ability to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and you're going to get people salivating. But for as much as we've heard about it, we've had scarcely little to see—until a team of students at the University of Illinois decided to build their very own miniature hyperloop.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
Planes generally average around 500mph, and the average plane flight time between SF and LA is... roughly 57 minutes. You'd have to hit much higher speeds to not be survivable. You're just going to be spending the last 15 minutes slowing down gradually.
LOL ... well, I'll accept my being a moron as the problem here ... despite reading it, and knowing where those cities are located ... my brain was treating that as a "coast to coast in an hour", like New York to LA.
You are utterly correct.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Most of the time it is coasting, so a power loss would not cause it to stop. If one does get stuck, they have emergency air, and the capsules behind the stuck one would drive themselves back to the station with onboard motors. The life support systems are battery powered. And why would it take 5-6 hours for emergency help to arrive? This thing is not in the middle of nowhere, it is following I-5 between LA and SF.
Coast to coast still wouldn't be that big of a deal. The SR-71 Blackbird flew from LA to Washington DC in 64 minutes 20 seconds.
They didn't design a hyperloop. They designed something that tested some aspects that would get used by a hyperloop.
Do editors even work here?
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
NY to LA is 2448 miles - at an acceleration of 1g (~22 (Miles per hour) per second) it would take 102 seconds (1.7 minutes) to achieve a speed capable of going from LA to NY in an hour. As long as there aren't any sharp curves, or things to hit along the way, there aren't any forces that would prevent a 1hr trip from LA to NY. Hell the SR-71 made the trip from NY to London in 1hr 40 minutes, and that's 1000 miles farther at ground level - let alone at the 80k - 90k feet the SR71 flew at.
Their whitepaper, starting on page 39.
From Los Angeles to San Francisco: 559 km
From Paris to Marseilles: 660 km, 16 high speed trains per day.
" Freight rail in the US, which is a much, much better use of resources, on the other hand, is top of the world."
Except for our umpty-ump brazillion grade crossings. If we could only get these separated, we would be able to increase freight speeds enough so that a few passenger trains could be sent through on each route with realistic, competitive run times.
If the government wants to help the railroad business, let it build grade separations, a type of construction that governments on all levels are already used to. Then let railroad men invest in improving the railroads.
For that matter, at 1g for the entire duration of the ride (1g acceleration halfway, 1g deceleration the other half) it would only take a bit over 21 minutes.
And if we want to talk about human survivability, Wikipedia tells me that humans can generally tolerate up to 5g before blacking out. At that rate it would take about 9.5 minutes one way.
And if we're just looking to get there in an hour, 1/8 g would do the trick.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.