Can coasters learn fron electric cars?

I was watching my sisters electric race set and I was wondering if that type of launch has been used. Is that what LIMs do? Because those electric cars sure take of fast.
-----------------
Skater for life!

On a slot-car set, a bus-bar on the track provides power to the car. The cars weigh almost nothing, but the DC traction motors can deliver lots of torque, making for a very high power-to-weight ratio. So the cars can go like nobody's business.

There is one ride that works a lot like a slot-car set, specifically Test Track at EPCOT.

In a LIM, the object being propelled isn't equipped with an electric motor, but rather becomes an integral part of an electric motor...the reaction plates are equivalent to the rotor in a standard AC motor.

For what it's worth...if you've seen the film, The Hunt for Red October, that submarine was equipped with a magnetohydrodynamic drive, something the Japanese have been working very hard on for big container ships. It's just a circular LIM, but instead of using an aluminum reaction plate, it uses sea water. Won't work well in fresh water as fresh water is a lousy conductor.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Hey, what about installing that H20 drive on a Liquid Coaster? :)

Dave, what's in sea water that makes it conductive? The salt? Magnesium?

Some of the Schwartkopf and other European coasters also have motors built in.  Problem is they need relatively gentle slopes on the lift hill to deal with motor weight and to keep the electrical conduction system reasonable.  This usually results in a spiral lift hill.  There was another thread on this recently.

Slot cars can have tremendous power to weight ratios since their power sources are external.  Open racing slot cars can reach 80 mph in a fraction of a second.  The cars weigh less than 2 ounces but are powered by batteries and transformers that weigh several humndred pounds.  They also use tremendous aerodynamic forces and lots of sticky goo to corner at up to 50 Gs.  (Thats not a typo!)

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 12/27/2001. ***

---

RideMan said:
On a slot-car set, a bus-bar on the track provides power to the car. The cars weigh almost nothing, but the DC traction motors can deliver lots of torque, making for a very high power-to-weight ratio. So the cars can go like nobody's business.
There is one ride that works a lot like a slot-car set, specifically Test Track at EPCOT.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.

---

Well, to add to that - many dark rides also receive power via a similar busbar system, as do Disney's monorails.
Test Track is interesting because, to my knowledge, the cars aren't really guided by the slot.  Instead, each car has an umbilical cord of wires and things, and the information that the cars onboard computers use is transmitted via this.  The cars, though, drive themselves.
I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than that, though.  I've never really been able to find a really good, detailed explanation of what makes it go, unfortunately.
 
-----------------
~~~ M ~~~
Official Driver for the Long Island Regional.

Taipan, sea water is a better conductor than fresh water because of the dissolved ionic compounds in it: the salt. Salt water is an EXCELLENT conductor. And if you recall, what is needed for a LIM reaction plate is a substance that is electrically conductive but non-magnetic such as aluminum, copper, or cobalt. Seawater happens to be both conductive and non-magnetic, so if you can accelerate seawater through a motor coil, you have yourself a Jacuzzi engine with no moving parts.

To add to what Jim said, as if we haven't clubbed you over the head with it already, the real trick is the power to weight ratio. Schwarzkopf's powered trains were built a lot like slot cars, with a busbar for the power and a third traction rail (as on a Wisdom Dragon Wagon) for the drive tire. The trouble is, motor torque is not directly related to motor size, and a tiny slot car motor can produce more torque per inch of motor than can a gigantic roller coaster drive motor.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.