4 ms·
There is no way you could put the magnets on the rider. Variance in body sizes are too enormous. You'd need them to step on to a platform that could be released
by jerf 2y ago
There is no way you could put the magnets on the rider. Variance in body sizes are too enormous. You'd need them to step on to a platform that could be released.
And that platform would need some engineering to prevent it from flipping.
To be honest the natural end point of what you get after you engineer it for safety probably is literally just an elevator platform.
- eternityforest 2y agoWhy would body size variation affect anything? You could just have enough magnets to slow the heaviest person enough to be safe. Although you might wind up with a hundred pound full body suit or something
- jerf 2y agoA skinny person's magnets will be less close to the walls than a fat person's magnets. Tall versus short, even just body shape will affect the rate of descent. And electromagnetism is inverse-square, which is not something you can just gloss over. And I sort of cheated by mentally running through the designs myself, like, yes, you could build a constant thing you just put people in, but, why would people want to go in the thing rather than on the thing? It is intrinsically going to be more claustrophobic in any container than being on it. So you put people on it. Then you do this, and do that, and a whole lot of safety work... and like I said, you honestly just get back to, why would anybody want this at all? Who cares if it's "really" magnets anyhow? And you just end up back at "It's a platform that descends slowly using standard elevator technology." at the end of the design process.