Out of town, and off line, for a couple of days.

The method of getting the car up to 88 mph in BTTF3 always bothered me a bit. Throw some explosives in the firebox? Surely the loco could have developed enough steam pressure to blow the boiler without any supplemental fuel, if you let it. It could probably have done 88 mph on it's normal supply of cordwood, given straight enough and smooth enough track, which is somewhat doubtful.

I've got my doubts about the counterweight method however. You either have to have enough weight to accelerate the loco to 88 in just the height of the canyon wall, with a 1:1 pull, or you need to use a pulley system to give the loco more running room and a massively larger weight. Probably several hundred thousand pounds. Hmm, must do some math one of these days.

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

What about a steam powered catapult like those used on an Aircraft Carrier?

The easiest way would be for Doc Brown to leave a message for his future self to come back and leave spare parts at some specified location, and then go pick them up.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

Relative to the ground.

They tried alcohol, although I believe it was just 80 proof. Yes, they could easily have built a fractional distillation device that could have rapidly gotten it to more than 95% purity. Heck, I did that back in college with my nextdoor neighbor in less than 6 hours, and less than 24 hrs later, we had a brew that was more than 90% pure. Glass and plastic are best, but copper will do just fine.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

You're right on both accounts, and that's a solution I hadn't thought of! Anchor one set of pullies to, say, a large tree, and affix the other set of pullies to the horses. The loose end of the rope would be anchored to the DeLorean.

Assuming the team of horses, under load, would only reach 25 mph, a team of 10 horses with a 4-pully block and tackle would easily get the DeLorean up to 100 mph.

Alternatively, we could use the block and tackle with my original weight idea.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Electric motors were available back then. You're absolutely right.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Mine (a Ford Explorer Sport-Trac) can, but some lawyer convinced Ford to put a 99 mph govenor on it...

I hate lawyers, almost as much as I dislike people who insist on my driving slow for no better reason than the fact that they cannot do so safely.

I've been over 200 mph on a track, up to 143 mph on the Autobahn, and once, back when I was young and stupid, around 165 on a relatively empty Interstate back in the US.

Still, I use my Sport Trac 98% of the time for around town driving, picking up firewood, strangers, and the occasional furniture item.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

In a diesal, yes. But the DeLorean wasn't a diesal.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Excellent! Another idea I hadn't thought of.

It's nice to see that teamwork works at coming up with good ideas!

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Only if they used a rope of standard diameter, such as between 1/2 inch and 1 inch. Back then, though, they had ropes well in excess of 3 inches diameter, and hardened steel chains if one needed more tensile strength. Doc may have able to afford the former, blacksmiths being among the better-paid denizens of towns in those days, but he would have had to steal the latter, and probably wouldn't have had either time enough to fashion it in town (he was a blacksmith), nor time enough to travel to where he could have stolen it.

But yes, ropes, of sufficient diameter, would have worked just fine, and without snapping.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Aha! Another wonderful idea I of which I hadn't thought!!!

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Also a very distinct possibility. Might want to have both trains going 50 mph to provide for both margin of error as well as deceleration effects.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Well, the goal wasn't to accelerate the loco to 88 mph. Just the car, which is why Doc employed the loco.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Geez, Mugaliens... Got something to say?

Dont Hold back now...


Meanwhile...
They should have used 88 proof then.

Another problem with mugaliens' idea, I think, would be keeping the DeLorean stable in a horizontal trajectory. Wouldn't the sudden motion tend to make it flip over?

Another thing that would make me uneasy, if I were in Marty and Doc's place, is that the sort of method you suggest could only be tried once. No rehearsals. If it failed, that would mean sure death for everybody inside the car.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

You mean kinda like driving by the courthouse at 88 miles per hour down mainstreet, just before a corner?

...Or into a bridge that would only be there in the future.

Yes, but in the other films they had no reason to doubt that the propulsion would fail. In Back to the Future III they were testing a propulsion system they had never used before.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

Um... Am I missing something here? The car wouldn't be going any faster than the horses could run, it would just accelerate faster to the 25mph. Block & tackle simply makes lifting easier, not faster. Unless my high school physics was totally wasted...?

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* Never doubt there is Truth; just doubt that you have it!

if you reverse the polarity of the block and tackle, it increases speed instead of force!

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info