As I recall (from too many years ago) there was a system rather like this in
the Pohl/Williamson novel "The Reefs of Space". They assumed that you would
experience reduced weight during the first half of the journey and increased
weight in the second half (on the analogy of an elevator - you drop in the
first half, climb up in the second). i also seem to recall a proposal like
this a few years ago in Omni magazine - it was called "Planettran" as far as
I can remember. I'll try to dig out that reference. Steve Davies
----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Broderick" <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>
To: <extropians@extropy.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 6:27 AM
Subject: ballistic subterranean trains
> A year or so back, there was a brief discussion on the list of the
> sub-orbital dynamics of a vehicle connecting distant places via an
> evacuated tube under the ground (maybe along a chord), impelled by
> gravity
> for a basically free ride. I'm putting this in an sf novel, but I had a
> drive-crash months ago that obliterated the saved messages, and the exi
> archive search engine isn't helping me (although I've tried 101 variants
> of
> topic and names).
>
> I was under the impression that everyone here felt all such craft would
> go
> anywhere in about 80 minutes; the only net site I've found on the topic
> gives an analysis arguing for 42 minutes and change.
>
> http://www.math.purdue.edu/~eremenko/train.html
>
> I'm wondering about the sensations of flying one of these babies.
> Reduced
> weight for the first half, a moment of free fall, then heavier? How much
> of
> either?
>
> If anyone can find an url to the original thread, I'd be grateful. Or
> maybe
> we can do it all again now.
>
> Damien Broderick
>
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