Posted on 06/18/2013 12:15:36 PM PDT by ShadowAce
That's what I was thinking as well. At an average of 5 mph you'd you'd be in the stratosphere in two hours and in space at 12. You'd probably want to remember to crank the windows up, though.
Ha - my thots exactly!
Because magnetic levitation of significant weight is measured in inches (or fractions of an inch), not hundreds of feet.
If it was made strong enough to lift an elevator full of people, it would rip every ferrous metal object off of you and hold it on the ceiling. A little bit of steel in your zipper would shred your pants as it zipped past your nose.
Because the "lion's share" of the 12,800 Kg is the weight of the car, brakes, & 24 passengers which is a constant regardless of building height.
Regards,
GtG
What city should we expect to see these in first? Very interesting.
Magnetic levitation works fine in many other applications:
http://www.dailytech.com/US+Navy+Launches+First+Aircraft+with+Magnetic+Catapult/article20448.htm
If trains and aircraft carriers can safely use the tech then why not elevators?
Dallas. Of course down here we would have AA guns every Twenty floors.
Youre not taking into account the weight of the car and people, which is constant in both measures. The weight of the rope is the same, but as you string out the steel cable, there is more weight due to more cable.
Tapered cables reduce this challenge, but when you add length, it is the thickest portion you’re adding to.
Ok, but the energy used going up could be partially recovered coming back down, couldn’t it?
I can see that. Maybe they’ll run legal base-jumping festivals there too, like they do in Malaysia.
Again, they are not lifting hundreds of feet. They are lifting inches or less to reduce the friction of horizontal travel.
The same principle that propels a maglev train would lift an elevator.
While you are correct that a maglev train is lifted by magnets you’re forgetting that such a train is also propelled by them. And the force that can speed several hundred tons of train at 300mph can surely be applied to moving a three ton elevator a couple thousand feet.
No. Acceleration of mass is not equivalent to lifting of mass.
You’ve never been to an amusement park, have you?
http://www.wisegeek.org/how-are-magnets-used-in-roller-coasters.htm#didyouknowout
You are confusing the accumulation effect of force over time with little resistance, with an absolute magnitude of force.
Individual people can make a train car roll, if they keep pushing for a while. The steel wheels have little resistance and the mag-lev have far less. This does not correspond to the same people being able to lift a large mass.
Again, acceleration along a supporting path is not equal to lifting weight.
Linear motors are not magnetic levitation. Do you understand the difference?
Nothing new in having to change elevators, the empire state building requires you to change elevators in order to reach the top floor, and I imagine the sears tower is the same not just the buildings mentioned in this article.
If you could reach the center of the earth without frying from the heat, there would be no gravity at all, every direction from the center would be UP, there would be no down direction until, of course, you started back up then the down would be back to the center of the earth.
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