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A comment on Air travel’s sudden collapse will reshape a trillion-dollar industry. Parent comment

Re:Air travel’s sudden collapse will reshape a trillion-doll... by titzer on Thursday July 30, 2020 @08:06PM (#24004256)
That's not a citation, it's a random factoid, which doesn't make for a fruitful discussion. Other random factoids include:

* trains are long

* trains travel slower than airplanes, and drag is proportional to the square of speed

* making conclusions solely based drag coefficients from the density of the air is sound reasoning

One of these statements is false. I get that hackernews is just a forum for casual discussion of various technical topics, but overly categorical statements based on a reasoning in a vacuum (no pun in intended) just force the conversation into unproductive threads like this one. I'm kinda sorry I took the bait at this point.

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Re:Air travel’s sudden collapse will reshape a trillion-doll... by kerkeslager on Thursday July 30, 2020 @09:24PM (#24004691)
> I get that hackernews is just a forum for casual discussion of various technical topics

I hear this sentiment a lot, and I don't understand it. Trying to speak the truth isn't just optional outside formal contexts. There's no situation so casual that I it suddenly becomes appropriate to make up bullshit and present it as facts.

That is to say, I agree with your larger point: if nickff wants to make the claim that trains consume more energy than aircraft, he'd better come up with a reasonable source for that information.

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Re:Air travel’s sudden collapse will reshape a trillion-doll... by deepnotderp on Friday July 31, 2020 @01:10AM (#24005867)
Trains are long, but skin friction drag is real. Traveling slower is a bug, not a feature. If you want to go slower, airplanes can be more efficient as well!
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