Just passed by a train with a hundred or so cargo crates. how do they start? I understand how they continue moving, but how do they overcome the inertia of starting it? It has to be like thousands of tons, and I can’t imagine a bunch of coal being able to start moving that. unless of course it can, in which ELI5
In: Engineering
Trains are specifically designed to pull large amounts of weight, and considering we have been doing this for a long time, the technology is quite mature. You’re right, the train is super heavy, but that’s why it’s on steel rails, to reduce the friction as much as possible to help it glide along. It’s also why trains are slow to start/stop, because unlike a car trains generally know when they’re going to be stopping, so it’s ok if it takes them a while to accelerate.
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