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Re:Elon Musk and the Hyperloop by leoedin on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @04:50AM (#4813542)
Just like everything else in life the system would be subject to the laws of thermodynamics. The act of pressurising air would heat it up, and heat loss would mean that it wouldn't be fully reversible.

I suspect that a fully evacuated system using magnetic propulsion and energy recovery would be more efficient - the turbulent nature of air and the low-quality nature of heat energy would probably work against you to make a pneumatic spring fairly inefficient.

Re:Elon Musk and the Hyperloop by aptwebapps on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @07:40AM (#4813989)
I don't think there's much doubt that an evacuated tube would be very efficient. Not only that, but you could go much faster. Jacques has rejected that hypothesis for other reasons.
Re:Elon Musk and the Hyperloop by dllthomas on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:33PM (#4815880)
"Jacques has rejected that hypothesis for other reasons."

Specifically, due to a specific statement that it is not an evacuated tube.

Re:Elon Musk and the Hyperloop by aptwebapps on Thursday November 22, 2012 @09:50AM (#4818920)
Well, yes, but he also supplied some arguments why his idea might be better which is what I was referring to.