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A comment on Winning Hyperloop design revealed by MIT engineers. Parent comment

Re:Winning Hyperloop design revealed by MIT engineers by InclinedPlane on Thursday February 04, 2016 @02:59AM (#11032614)
That's not how the hyperloop works. The air isn't for moving, it's for reducing friction using the air hockey table effect. The acceleration is provided by linear induction motors in accelerator sections. It's that combination which results in a high speed train at low costs.
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Re:Winning Hyperloop design revealed by MIT engineers by IIAOPSW on Thursday February 04, 2016 @10:09AM (#11034360)
no, the hockey table thing is a convenient (but unnecessary) side effect.

Moving the air from front to back (with a pump) is needed to compensate for being in a partial vacuum rather than a true vacuum. Without the air pump you don't have a hyperloop. You just have a maglev in a tunnel.

I never implied that moving the air provided the motion.

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