4 ms·

British scientist Philip E. Mason (thunderfoot) made several skeptical videos on Hyperloop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNFesa01llk https://www.youtube.com/

• dnautics 9y ago
  thunderfoot's analysis forgets, among other things, that the force of pressure scales with r^2 and mass with r^3
  • totalZero 9y ago
    Building a mechanical system isn't the same thing as writing an algorithm. You can determine ahead of time r and p for all uses, and m has a pretty manageable upper bound too. Asymptotic considerations are not always relevant. They do have real utility in academic work, where a designer of a proof of concept ought to show that the applicable cases of his idea are workable. But that's not really the situation here. More importantly, maximum velocity is not likely to be a strong function of mass, which is relevant only to acceleration and friction. Acceleration/deceleration can be assisted by other means, and bearing designers can adopt very effective solutions from other means of transit.
    • dnautics 9y ago
      I'm specifically referring to why the demonstration of a ball bearing puncturing a glass tube does not scale catastrophically at larger sizes.
• Pxtl 9y ago
  I have a lot of trouble trusting Thunderfoot's judgement after he waded into the Sarkeesian thing.