[io9] Real-life Futurama tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours - Page 7

its all fun and games until the tube breaks in the dead center of the ocean and you have to swim 200 miles to shore =/

lol no. If it broke underwater (assuming breached by water) everyone in it would pretty much be totally screwed. It's a vacuum, it'll fill with water with explosive force, as if the pressure of the entire ocean wasn't enough.

If incident occur not much can we do but pray until the dark water consume u or till the last breath. Swimming 200 miles?? u not gonna make it

Under the ocean? Assuming a depth of 2 miles that's a pressure of ~4700psi. The -15psi partial vacuum of the tube isn't going to mean jack; it's lost in the margin of error. The water would flood the tunnel and crush the capsule like a tin can and the people inside like a cat under a steamroller.


For an idea of the differential we're talking about, imagine you're overclocking your computer. You set the CPU voltage to 1.125V. Then you apply 1000V to the CPU power input. It doesn't matter if your CPU voltage is 1.125V or 1.750V. You're still screwed.
Edited by Phaedrus2129 - 5/23/12 at 8:59am

As for all the "4,000 MPH crash, everyone dies" crowd, what exactly do you think your chances are of surviving a plane crash? Not an emergency landing, an actual crash. Pretty much 0. So how is this worse?

Edit: Also, if an inductive track system (Inductrack) was used power failure would not be a problem. The capsule would slowly coast down to a slow speed (1-2MPH) then would drop down onto it's wheels. That sounds a lot safer than what happens if an aircraft losses power.

/Edit

It would be pretty easy to engineer in many fail safes, segmented tunnel sections with pressure seals could help in the event of a depressurised cabin, and of course there would be emergency oxygen masks available too. Incidentally if a plane depressurises you are equally screwed. True it might not be full vacuum, but the pressure is low enough that without an oxygen mask you will be unconscious in minutes, dead soon after.

The acceleration is a non-issue - as many people have pointed out speed != acceleration. Also you would assume that a group of people smart enough to get something like this to work might just work out what kind of acceleration we can stand comfortably.

Keeping the tube sealed would present a bit of an engineering challenge; it is a lot harder to contain a vacuum than positive pressure. You would obviously need vacuum pumps at intervals along the tunnel, and some kind of airlock system at the entry / exit points.

The tube would have to be able to withstand movements in the earth's surface, thermal expansion and contraction and so on. Also designing the tube for external pressure is tricky, the tube will need to be a lot stronger than if it were pressurised. The cabin will be fine, it is essentially pressurised.

Not impossible to design, just very hard.



You and me both.
Edited by GingerJohn - 5/24/12 at 8:17am

So would the stations for these be called "Tubeports" or Tube Stations?

Tubeports for underwater transit
Tube Stations for underground transit
Uh..when this thing become available 10 year later?

And just how do you propose a container be built so the outer wall survives a multi-thousand mph collision and still has useful internal space?

Also, people aren't eggs. The egg in your experiment survives because water is incompressible, thus the forces acting on the shell from outside and inside are balanced.

What you are proposing here has no relation to this experiment. Take your egg, put it in an air filled jar, then take that air filled jar, put it in a jar of water, then fire the whole thing out of a cannon at a wall, and that would be closer to what would happen if the maglev, or the vacuum failed, or if there was a collision, in one of these tubes with your "safety measure". It wouldn't be pretty.

I use this technology everyday! ...for my bank checks
A wise man told me once that speed doesn't kill you, it is the acceleration then decceleration that does the crushing.

Saftey seems like an issue. One way tubes launching super fast cylinders. Also heck of a wait time, 1 ride every 30+ minutes.

I'd so do it.