JFrombaugh
Goomba
Remember how I mentioned in a thread about Mario-related school work about how I had once written a story for Creative Writing about how I had gone on a field trip to the Mushroom Kingdom with the three princesses as our chaperones? In it, I mentioned that we had to take a supersonic "Maglev" train enclosed in a vacuum tunnel to travel from Sarasaland (where the closest warp pipe to our area of the US was) to the Mushroom Kingdom in almost no time at all. I'd gotten the idea from Physics class; my teacher had told us that theoretically a Maglev could get almost unlimited speed inside a vacuum tunnel due to both the lack of air resistance and the lack of contact with the ground.
Well, it turns out we have the technology to build such a system today, and there's a company pushing for one to be built from San Francisco to Los Angeles! It's called the Hyperloop, and it's scheduled to undergo some testing this year and possibly be operational by around 2025-2030 if things go well.
The design is slightly different to the train in my story, as it runs on an air cushion rather than maglev technology (to save money), and its marketed top speed is only 760 mph (just below the sound barrier) while the Mushroom Kingdom-Sarasland Vac-train in my fanfic was able to reach speeds of up to 3,400 mph (Mach 4.5). But even so, I have to admit that it looks like a marvel of modern engineering, and I would definitely ride it if only I lived in California.
On the other hand, there have been some concerns raised about the practicality of the Hyperloop, namely whether or not potential safety pitfalls could be adequetely addessed (such as an accidental pressurization or damage to the structure from an earthquake), as well as the question of if the ride would be comfortable enough for passengers, not too claustophobic or rough, etc.
Here's a pretty good news article about the project: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-elon-musk-high-speed-hyperloop-mars.html
So what do you think? Would you ride on this thing if it became a reality? Or do you think it's all a pipe dream (pun intended)?
Well, it turns out we have the technology to build such a system today, and there's a company pushing for one to be built from San Francisco to Los Angeles! It's called the Hyperloop, and it's scheduled to undergo some testing this year and possibly be operational by around 2025-2030 if things go well.
The design is slightly different to the train in my story, as it runs on an air cushion rather than maglev technology (to save money), and its marketed top speed is only 760 mph (just below the sound barrier) while the Mushroom Kingdom-Sarasland Vac-train in my fanfic was able to reach speeds of up to 3,400 mph (Mach 4.5). But even so, I have to admit that it looks like a marvel of modern engineering, and I would definitely ride it if only I lived in California.
On the other hand, there have been some concerns raised about the practicality of the Hyperloop, namely whether or not potential safety pitfalls could be adequetely addessed (such as an accidental pressurization or damage to the structure from an earthquake), as well as the question of if the ride would be comfortable enough for passengers, not too claustophobic or rough, etc.
Here's a pretty good news article about the project: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-elon-musk-high-speed-hyperloop-mars.html
So what do you think? Would you ride on this thing if it became a reality? Or do you think it's all a pipe dream (pun intended)?
