Speaker 1: Audible dot com is the leading provider of downloadable digital
Speaker 1: audio books and spoken word entertainment. Audible has over one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand titles to choose from to be downloaded to
Speaker 1: your iPod or MP three player. Go to audible podcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash brain stuff to get a free audio
Speaker 1: book download of your choice when you sign up today.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from hastaff marks dot com where smart happens.
Speaker 1: I am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is a
Speaker 1: funicular railway? A funicular uses the technology of an elevator,
Speaker 1: in other words, a cable pulling a car up, and
Speaker 1: the technology of a railroad, which is a car on
Speaker 1: a track. Devised in the fifteen century, is a way
Speaker 1: of getting people and things up steep hillsides. The funicular
Speaker 1: now is more likely to carry skiers to the top
Speaker 1: of a mountain in the United States that are often
Speaker 1: referred to as incline railways. A conventional train could never
Speaker 1: travel up such as steep incline because the steel train
Speaker 1: wheels don't have enough traction against the steel rails. Trains
Speaker 1: that do climb mountains go up tracks that spiral around
Speaker 1: the mountain or go through many switchbacks. You might be wondering,
Speaker 1: then why not build a train with rubber tires instead,
Speaker 1: They might have enough traction to make it up the hills.
Speaker 1: The reason trains have steel wheels and tracks is to
Speaker 1: minimize rolling resistance to its absolute lowest level. This is
Speaker 1: a force that tends to slow wheeled vehicles down. It
Speaker 1: comes from the weight of the vehicle squishing the tires.
Speaker 1: But even with rubber tires, it would be tough to
Speaker 1: get enough traction on a steep slope, especially if it's
Speaker 1: raining or snowing. The funicular conquers these problems in a
Speaker 1: very elegant way. First, the car has pulled up the
Speaker 1: mountain by a cable, which means that traction is no
Speaker 1: longer an issue. The wheels just guide the car up
Speaker 1: the mountain. They don't provide any of the pulling power
Speaker 1: are But the true genius of the funicular is that
Speaker 1: it uses two cars at the same time, one on
Speaker 1: each side of a top pulley. At any one time,
Speaker 1: one car is balancing the way to the other. The
Speaker 1: descending cars weight helps pull the ascending car up the mountain,
Speaker 1: and the ascending train keeps the speed of the descending
Speaker 1: train from going out of control. There's still a motor
Speaker 1: powering the pulley, but it only has to provide enough
Speaker 1: force to overcome the difference in weight between the two cars.
Speaker 1: Usually the way of the passengers is different and overcome
Speaker 1: any friction in the system. At the kit stein Horn
Speaker 1: Glacier in Austria, two cars carry skiers up and down
Speaker 1: the mountain on a single cable that forms a loop
Speaker 1: around a pulley at the top of the mountain and
Speaker 1: then a passive pulley at the bottom. The kit stein
Speaker 1: Horn funicular runs on electricity, which is supplied from a
Speaker 1: power station at the top of the mountain. An electric
Speaker 1: motor at the top keeps the cable moving. There's a
Speaker 1: passive pully at the bottom of the mountain that provides
Speaker 1: tension to the loop of cable. The Austrian funicular has
Speaker 1: a single set of tracks going up the whole mountain,
Speaker 1: except for a small section in the middle where it
Speaker 1: splits into a double track. This is where the two
Speaker 1: cars can pass each other. Building a funicular is quite
Speaker 1: a feat because the track has to be laid either
Speaker 1: on a steep mountain side or on a trestle that
Speaker 1: rises from the side of the mountain and provides a
Speaker 1: smooth platform. The Kistein Horn is ten thousand, four or
Speaker 1: thirty meters tall. The tunnel that the funicular travels through
Speaker 1: is eleven thousand, five hundred feet or thirty five hundred
Speaker 1: meters long. It was a huge project to build this railway.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics because
Speaker 1: that house stuff works dot com, and don't forget to
Speaker 1: check out the brain stuff block on the house stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com home page. You can also follow brain
Speaker 1: stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain stuff HSW. Streaming
Speaker 1: TV shows and movies directly to your home is a
Speaker 1: breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can instantly
Speaker 1: watch TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device,
Speaker 1: or television. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go
Speaker 1: to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today.