My Weightlessness Invention

[PaperBagger'14]

Lots of your ideas involve massive amounts of digging (underground bunker). Are we sure you’re not one of those mole people?

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I'm a minute or so deep into that and it's ridiculous. Who is this dipsht?

He's a comedian that makes fun of people who have podcasts. He has done about 20 or so of them. It's to be taken as seriously as this thread.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by nik-

So, skydiving in a pod.

Hmmmm. Damn, nik. That's probably the better way to do this. I fricken love it!!

Edit: Long-term I wonder if that's more expensive to operate? We'll have to crunch some numbers. I'm not much of a miner, so I don't know what costs are involved in the big shaft situation, but maybe we don't even have to worry about a shaft if we just build something off the side of a huge cliff?

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I want to float in the air; not fall from the sky. I think my invention offers something significantly different from skydiving.

Your invention won't be a box-of-weightlessness, it'll be a box of somewhat less weight since the box itself will suffer from the same issue as skydiving.. it'll be falling at terminal velocity.

Even if you somehow pulled a vacuum in the tunnel (very dangerous) you'd still be falling at whatever the terminal velocity of the friction of the retention mechanism of the box in the hole results in (which will be less than freefall).

The only way would be to add acceleration to the box via whatever it's mounted to.

If you wanted to do this for say 2000m you'll end up at the speed of sound or more.

And it'd last for about 20 seconds.

So you'll get the experience of the vomit comet for about the cost of a Falcon 9.

[photon]

I bet going to space would be cheaper.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

Your invention won't be a box-of-weightlessness, it'll be a box of somewhat less weight since the box itself will suffer from the same issue as skydiving.. it'll be falling at terminal velocity.

Even if you somehow pulled a vacuum in the tunnel (very dangerous) you'd still be falling at whatever the terminal velocity of the friction of the retention mechanism of the box in the hole results in (which will be less than freefall).

The only way would be to add acceleration to the box via whatever it's mounted to.

If you wanted to do this for say 2000m you'll end up at the speed of sound or more.

And it'd last for about 20 seconds.

So you'll get the experience of the vomit comet for about the cost of a Falcon 9.

Oh man, really? I mean 20 seconds would be neat, but I don't know if you could find a 2000m mountain. Like, Ha Ling is 800m from valley floor to peak, I think.

Also, I don't understand the rest of what you said, but I trust that you know what you're talking about. Sounds like I wouldn't be floating inside the box?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

I bet going to space would be cheaper.

If it was just for me to do once, probably, but my thought was this would be an attraction that would operate for a few decades and serve 10s of thousands of people.

[Locke]

Gravity! Thinks its so tough and that we need to respect it's authority! Welcome to Human Ingenuity Bitch!

[photon]

Yeah I don't know in general how tall mountains are.

And making a vertical shaft the size of a small room to the tolerances required sounds like an expensive problem.

You wouldn't be floating inside the box since the box wouldn't be falling at 9.81m/s2, it'd be falling at some rate slower than that due to air resistance or due to friction with the rollers or whatever is stopping it from wildly flopping down the tunnel. You'd feel weight to the degree of the difference between that slower rate and 9.81m/s2. Until it hit terminal velocity and stops accelerating, then you'd feel full weight again.

Basically the same experience as an elevator just more extreme.

[DoubleF]

Is the elevator that goes up (down?) also going to momentarily mimic that weightlessness?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah I don't know in general how tall mountains are.

And making a vertical shaft the size of a small room to the tolerances required sounds like an expensive problem.

You wouldn't be floating inside the box since the box wouldn't be falling at 9.81m/s2, it'd be falling at some rate slower than that due to air resistance or due to friction with the rollers or whatever is stopping it from wildly flopping down the tunnel. You'd feel weight to the degree of the difference between that slower rate and 9.81m/s2. Until it hit terminal velocity and stops accelerating, then you'd feel full weight again.

Basically the same experience as an elevator just more extreme.

Ahh, yeah, I guess. Maybe if you made it really pointy on the nose and then there was a little jetblaster on the back to accelerate to 9.81m/s2? Also I hear you on the tunnel. Not sure why I didn't think of it originally, but it'd be way better to do it off the side of a cliff. I think there's a good mountain just outside of Banff for this.

[Coach]

Wouldn't it be easier/more accessible to build into a building?

This reminds of the slide that astronaughts can use to escape the launch pad if need be.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Coach

Wouldn't it be easier/more accessible to build into a building?

This reminds of the slide that astronaughts can use to escape the launch pad if need be.

No, dude, buildings are hilariously small compared to mountains. They're just not tall enough.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sliver

If it was just for me to do once, probably, but my thought was this would be an attraction that would operate for a few decades and serve 10s of thousands of people.

Kinda like the suborbital rocket rides?

I bet the cost of developing and running a suborbital rocket would be less than the mountain elevator drop.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Sliver

No, dude, buildings are hilariously small compared to mountains. They're just not tall enough.

Yeah but you could dig underneath too.

I dunno we all know it's insane. Seems like something North Korea would start and never complete.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Ahh, yeah, I guess. Maybe if you made it really pointy on the nose and then there was a little jetblaster on the back to accelerate to 9.81m/s2? Also I hear you on the tunnel. Not sure why I didn't think of it originally, but it'd be way better to do it off the side of a cliff. I think there's a good mountain just outside of Banff for this.

A small thing with thrust that can do a controlled decent sounds a LOT easier than a tunnel. Like an airplane

Like the parabola phase of the vomit comet ride.

AND with an airplane you aren't limited by the height of a mountain. And you can be weightless for twice the time since you're in freefall going up and down.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by photon

A small thing with thrust that can do a controlled decent sounds a LOT easier than a tunnel. Like an airplane

Like the parabola phase of the vomit comet ride.

AND with an airplane you aren't limited by the height of a mountain. And you can be weightless for twice the time since you're in freefall going up and down.

I am starting to see some holes in my plan. I've been thinking about this since the weekend, too. Almost posted on Saturday night, but thought I'd sit on it for a couple days.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

He's a comedian that makes fun of people who have podcasts. He has done about 20 or so of them. It's to be taken as seriously as this thread.

It's pretty well done. He had me going there. Sadly, it isn't implausible that someone would actually come up with such a ridiculous conspiracy theory.

[RockLicker]

Yeah if you're not married to the whole drill out a mountain thing, the most "reasonable" answer is to go underground from a more workable surface location. Like a lot of the potash mines in Sask are in the range of 1100-1500m underground. Maybe repurposing an old potash mine shaft is the answer. You would have to go to Sask though... As mentioned above, terminal velocity is gonna be the real issue here for you.

[photon]

$10,000 for a vomit comet ride of 5h and 15 parabolas I saw on one site.

That's not completely unreasonable.