French Train Breaks Speed Record 612
Josh Fink writes "A French train on the TGV line has broken the wheeled train speed record - again. At a speed of 350 miles per hour, they came close to breaking the all time record of 361 miles per hour, held by a Japanese maglev train. It was last broken back in 1990. From the article: 'The TGV, short for "train a grande vitesse," as France's bullet trains are called, is made up of three double-decker cars between two engines. It has been equipped with larger wheels than the usual TGV to cover more ground with each rotation and a stronger, 25,000-horsepower engine, said Alain Cuccaroni, in charge of the technical aspects of testing.'"
Got Nothing on Blaine... (Score:5, Funny)
Demoralising pointe of the story (Score:2, Funny)
Life is choochoo - all aboard!
Time for some speed holes (Score:5, Funny)
And they would have beat the overall record, except that at the last second they decided to add an aftermarket spoiler, a 40,000 watt subwoofer and ground effects.
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:5, Funny)
25000hp and most of it is used to push air in front of, and around the train. I wonder how much it would cost to build a vaccuum tunnel to run very high speed train in at a fraction of the power required by the TGV...
A perfect vacuum would be quite expensive, but we could lower the pressure significantly by running the train at a higher elevation. Now, 5 mile high tracks are going to be a problem, so we are going to have to find a way to get the train up there without having to build an elevated track.
Perhaps if we put "wings" on the sides, when the train worked up enough speed, it might lift itself up to an elevation with lower pressure.
That just might work.
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:3, Funny)
Just suspend them from a geostationary orbital platform with buckytubes.
socialist horsewash (Score:5, Funny)
in america, each person is an individual, with their own car. or preferably, SUV, since cars tend to get smashed. also SUVs can go 'offroading', an enjoyable diversion that reddens the blood coursing through the veins of every freedom loving american, alone on the frontier, conquering nature for the benefit of human civilizaton.
enough of these cheese eating wine sipping communards and their piffle trains. let them all get tuberculosis in the over crowded rat cans called 'passenger cars' and wallow in their dying economy as it goes down a black hole to overspent big-government ruin and waste.
au revoir, les suckers!
Alright, lets get this out of the way... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:4, Funny)
Credit for this goes to the Germans... (Score:0, Funny)
wow (Score:1, Funny)
(Just a joke people)
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:2, Funny)
PHYSICS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY
Yes, but . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but in forward or reverse? Ba-zing!
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:2, Funny)
Double the speed and turn the carriages upside down. The acceleration to top speed would still be interesting though. :)
Re:And this means? (Score:5, Funny)
So here's the idea: Some army (lets say the Germans) are chasing after the French. The French all jump on board their super TGV, which takes off down the track. The Germans stop on the track and say "Ha ha! They are running away! We can't catch their train, but we can just follow it to wherever they went, the fools!" So they start racing down the track following the French train. Meanwhile, far down the track, the French stop the train and get off, and go hide in the woods. The last one to go sets the train in reverse and opens the throttle. Now the last thing the Germans would expect is for the French train to come back, so they're caught completely off guard by the 400MPH TRAIN IN THE KISSER!
When you are truly skilled at fleeing, you can turn a retreat into an offensive.
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:3, Funny)
You mean Here? [thepiratebay.org]
Re:What you don't see (Score:4, Funny)
Oh wait...
Re:Got Nothing on Blaine... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What you don't see (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:1, Funny)
Sure, the French have done it 5 times [wikipedia.org].
Re:Physics is a bitch isn't it (Score:5, Funny)
What is this tendency that I have observed over the last few years whereby people start to think that the plural of any "difficult" word must end in "-ii"?
I, too, am tired of constantly seeing these mistakii.