11 ms·
Could a design such as this work in the real-world, for a real train? It seems to me that this could be feasible, since the power source is on the "car" itself
by elsurudo 12y ago
Could a design such as this work in the real-world, for a real train?
It seems to me that this could be feasible, since the power source is on the "car" itself, and the coil (infrastructure) wouldn't be that expensive to build (apart from the materials, of course). Or is it just too inefficient?
I don't know much about electronics/electromagnetism, admittedly.
- jarek 12y agoA variation where the power source is in the track exists in the real world, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_motor#Train_propulsion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_motor#Train_propulsion
- MrBra 12y agoAlso never forget the implications of the Square-Cube Law http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law
- elsurudo 12y agoCan you explain what you mean by this? I can't find mention of its implications to electricity.
- cma 12y agoProbably that as you scale up the size linearly, the volume, and thus weight goes up as the cube, but the surface area goes up as the square. Since this design relies on closing the circuit by having the magnets rub the wire, as you scale up you have an area in contact with the wire (surface area) going up as X^2, but the downforce due to gravity going up as X^3. You could add wheels and metallic contact brushes to scale it up. Keep in mind copper is really expensive, and you'd be scaling that up nontrivially too, or the current would fry the wire (I'd think the mass of the copper would go up as the cube too, at least to accelerate at the same rate--acceleration depends on the mass since F=MA, and the mass of the train went up as the cube).