More minecart science with powered rail

More experiments demonstrating how powered rail behaves, mostly regarding hills.

You can see my previous experiments at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG9bHjWxFYM

The conclusions:
For uphill trips in unoccupied carts, you need powered rail the whole way.

Powered rail does NOT reset your momentum.

On flat ground a powered rail every 30 meters or so will keep you at top speed. Varying a bit from that has a very small effect, so it's unnecessary to measure distances exactly.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Minecraft
• redstone
• powered rail
• booster cart
• minecart
• science
• experiment

[mrshackpack3]

map download?

[TaviRider]

@mrshackpack3 I don't really have a good way to distribute this, but many of the same tests are now in my World of Science. See my later minecart science videos, v=F7CyaCeS3fY and v=X--jojcSawc for more details about how Minecraft works. The descriptions also have download links.

[Venomhide]

Hey man. I would like to find out what would be the best way to get me and my minecart from my deep underground mine. theres around 10 blocks till the rail begins to slope all the way to the surface. What would be the best and most efficient way to do this? I dont wanna waste so much gold on powered rails as your informative vids showed. any suggestions?

[TaviRider]

@Venomhide This is my favorite kind of question.

There's no easy answer. If you want the fastest ride up, you must have powered rail every step, with no turns. If speed doesn't matter, every four rail for unoccupied, and every 7 or 8 for occupied, again with no turns. This will change next week because 1.6 will make powered rail stronger.

Assuming official pistons work the same as the mod, those will be the fastest and most efficient way up when they are added.

[Venomhide]

@TaviRider hey man! thanks alot! helped my quite alot but i found a better way! it works much better on slopes apparently. its a minecart booster basically but u but it on the slope It launches u straight up and i was down like 60+ blocks and 1 minecart booster made on a 45 degree slope brought me straight up to the surface!

[TaviRider]

@Venomhide I just finished testing that. I compared three situations with an occupied cart: 8 unpowered rail on a downward slope, 8 powered rail on a flat surface, and 8 powered rail on a downward slope. I reached a distance of 10 meters, 220 meters, and 270 meters. So you do go about 18 percent farther if you put your powered rail on a slope. That's probably because rail on a slope is actually longer than level rail, so the powered rail has more time/distance to push your cart.

[DraigarJT821]

He's like a human GladOS.

Science. Science. Science.

good work though! Thanks for this! :D

[theimben]

I'd like to say, you're very good at making these videos. Clear, informative and professional :)

[nicknam4]

3:15



[TaviRider]

@PyroFire232 That would take at least a little longer for the ride to start than simply using powered rail to push the rider's cart. That's because it's going to take at least a little time for the booster cart to come alongside the rider's cart.

If you want the best experience of all and the most momentum, use powered rail to push the rider's cart alongside a stationary double booster cart.

[PyroFire232]

heres an idea, since we know that booster carts give the travelling cart more momentum, what about using a booster rail to stop/start a booster cart?