Engineering marvels... the future looks bright!!!

[zidane1strife]

It seems that ideas are flowing like rivers of fire through the minds of my kin...

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,599827,00.html


So we see... That that which was once impossible... now seems possible...

 

[jvd]

New york city has a subway that works only by air , the trains have no engines at all

 

[epicstruggle]

what about plans to build the largest building in chicago suddenly dropped on 9/11. I think we could build some incredible things, but the costs would be enourmous when a few decide to destroy it.

later,
epic

 

[ninelven]

edited

 

[epicstruggle]

Funny that you should mention that as the U.S. is now scheduled to have the worlds tallest building (at least for a while - before the UAE building is complete) located in downtown New York.

Why funny, its the truth. The monument/building (at the wtc site) is nothing like trump wanted to build in chicago. Im glad we arent giving up on building bigger/better, but i think we wont be seeing much else go up of that stature in the near future. Are you positive about the UAE building??

later,
epic

 

[Vince]

Why funny, its the truth. The monument/building (at the wtc site) is nothing like trump wanted to build in chicago. Im glad we arent giving up on building bigger/better, but i think we wont be seeing much else go up of that stature in the near future.

It was my understanding that Trump will still build his tower in Chicago, it'll just be around 100 stories instead of 150. Besides, I don't think we've ever truely admitted that the Sears Tower is smaller than those nasty looking spikes in Kuala Lumpur.

 

[epicstruggle]

Did a bit of searching and the UAE building does look like it will be the tallest in the world. Depending on definition i guess, since one in moscow _might_ have some claim to the title.

later,
epic

 

[epicstruggle]

quite a nice building.

later,
epic

 

[Mariner]

Ooh! An enormous sundial!

 

[epicstruggle]

Ooh! An enormous sundial!

that was exactly what i was thinking. I hope someone tells them to add some numbers on the street surrounding the building.

later,
epic

 

[London Geezer]

That thing looks horrendous

 

[zidane1strife]

I think the world islands project, sounds nice:

 

[sytaylor]

This is why humanity frustrates me, we achieve so little of what we are capeable of.. imagine the benefits of a 1 hour transatlantic tunnel! its not like france/europe where we already had ferry's that took the best part of an hour maybe less. The economic benefit would pay for the costs, it must do.. i wanna see that thing before i die, especially considering we already have teh technology.

 

[jvd]

This is why humanity frustrates me, we achieve so little of what we are capeable of.. imagine the benefits of a 1 hour transatlantic tunnel! its not like france/europe where we already had ferry's that took the best part of an hour maybe less. The economic benefit would pay for the costs, it must do.. i wanna see that thing before i die, especially considering we already have teh technology.

Well if they start in the next 10 years you might .

 

[Humus]

A transatlantic tunnel could be very problematic to build and very expensive. The length would be waaaay beyond any existing tunnels. You'd also get problems with continental movements breaking it.

 

[Paul]

transatlantic tunnel could be very problematic to build and very expensive. The length would be waaaay beyond any existing tunnels. You'd also get problems with continental movements breaking it.

Not to mention, how many years would it take to complete??? 20,25?

 

[3dilettante]

I think the world's biggest vacuum chamber is a 3 story one used by NASA.

The transatlantic vacuum tunnel will be over 3000 miles long. Let's assume the tube's internal space has something around a 30 ft radius.
That would come out to be over 4.48x10^10 cubic feet of vacuum.

I'd hate to see any section of the 3000+ miles spring a leak, especially not any section 300 feet underwater. It is true we lay cable under the Atlantic all the time, but none of our cables has the tendency to spectacularly implode.

What is the effect of explosive decompression on a train moving 4000 miles an hour anyway?