World's Simplest Electric Train

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Indeed this is heresy.
 
Just a practical question, how do you get it to stop in the middle? No one's going to build a passenger train that can't be stopped in an emergency?

Also, I'd have to imagine that you'd need a lot more current than a 1.5 volt battery could provide to move a person sized capsule.

Great idea, I hope people are working on improving it.
 
FndTheRver said:
Just a practical question, how do you get it to stop in the middle? No one's going to build a passenger train that can't be stopped in an emergency?

Also, I'd have to imagine that you'd need a lot more current than a 1.5 volt battery could provide to move a person sized capsule.

Great idea, I hope people are working on improving it.
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If you wanted it to stop, you could break the connection between the power source and the magnets at one end. That would cause it to glide to a stop.

For braking, you first lower the power to 0, and then reverse it slowly.

Super simple to do with a DC power source, a couple switches, and a potentiometer.
 
I'd be interested in finding out how long before that battery was dead. It seems to be fighting quit a bit of friction as it rattled along and the amount of current that would be needed to provide that amount of thrust would be considerable. I wouldn't be surprised if that battery was already warm from just the simple tests they were doing.
 
Gafferking said:
I'd be interested in finding out how long before that battery was dead. It seems to be fighting quit a bit of friction as it rattled along and the amount of current that would be needed to provide that amount of thrust would be considerable. I wouldn't be surprised if that battery was already warm from just the simple tests they were doing.
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The battery was just a placeholder. Sheesh! It was perpetual motion! :p
 
FndTheRver said:
Just a practical question, how do you get it to stop in the middle? No one's going to build a passenger train that can't be stopped in an emergency?

Also, I'd have to imagine that you'd need a lot more current than a 1.5 volt battery could provide to move a person sized capsule.
Click to expand...
Well presumably you'd use electromagnets and not permanent magnets, so you simply you disconnect power to your microfusion reactors that are powering the thing and you're golden :)

I used to do something similar as a demo to show Lenz' law in action, you drop a magnet in a copper pipe even though copper is not attracted to the magnet the changing magnetic field as it falls induces a current that creates a magnetic field in the opposite direction. Similar thing is happening here, except the magnets (metal outsides) touching the copper wire, allow a current to flow to the back of the battery (also touching wire) this creates a magnetic field which pulls the "train" ahead.

That said, no way this would get off the ground, metal thieves would chop up a copper train tube in no time flat and sell it to a scrap yard that looks the other way!
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
Thats was pretty gangsta the way he had the URL so small on the fortune cookie paper at the end.
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If was really more the length of that channel name that freaked me out. Seriously, WTF? A barcode would be easier to remember.

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DPI said:
If was really more the length of that channel name that freaked me out. Seriously, WTF? A barcode would be easier to remember.

9IpSUNM.jpg
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or click on the AmazingScience channel name if you are watching the video at You Tube. :eek:
 
The real question here is... who the hell is going to type in that crazy long url?
 
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