I have a good idea

Kinja'd!!! by "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
Published 02/25/2017 at 11:18

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Elon Musk’s Hyperloop: I don’t know much about it, but what if you use air pressure to get the train going? More air pressure on one side and less on the other means it goes to the side with less air pressure right? There you go.


Replies (7)

Kinja'd!!! "djmt1" (djmt1)
02/25/2017 at 11:42, STARS: 0

That was the original plan but it takes way too much energy to keep it going over a small distance let alone over 500 miles.

Kinja'd!!! "If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
02/25/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 2

Yeah but the whole point is that the vehicle moves in a vacuum. If you try to move it by air pressure you need a tight seal between it and the tube and that means friction.

Kinja'd!!! "Audistein" (Audistein)
02/25/2017 at 11:46, STARS: 0

That’s called a pneumatic tube. A good a idea for some (usually small scale) transportation needs but very different design from the hyper loop.

There are also pneumatic railways aka atmospheric railways which use pressure to move a train though the whole train is not sealed inside a tube. Some systems like this do exist and are in use.

Kinja'd!!! "facw" (facw)
02/25/2017 at 11:47, STARS: 0

as EssExTee said, this needs to be in a near vacuum, and putting air pressure in the tube run against that, especially since the concept has trains running down the pipe with very little headway.

What you describe has been tried before though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_pneumatic_railway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit

Kinja'd!!! "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
02/25/2017 at 11:54, STARS: 1

Cock. So I have re-invented the Atmospheric railway.

Kinja'd!!! "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
02/25/2017 at 11:54, STARS: 1

Well, at least it works

I thought of something that works? REALLY?

Kinja'd!!! "JohnH3ASP" (jh3-21)
02/25/2017 at 11:55, STARS: 0

You also need a tight seal in the engine, and oil lubricates that.