I'm watching Back to the Future III, this evening, and the critical hurdle was that they couldn't figure out a way to get a Delorean up to 88 mph. They tried alcohol, but it blew the manifold off the engine, rendering it useless.

I won't give away their solution (spoiler), but would like to open this thread for Back to the Future aficionados so we can discuss alternative methods of propelling a DeLorean to 88 mph in ways available in 1885.

(by the way, aficionado is the correct spelling, as it's a modern Spanish word, as is patio, even though most English-speaking people spell it afficionado).

First, we must remember that the DeLorean that went to 1885 was the one with the Mr. Fusion, could fly, etc. However, the lightening strike that sent it there fried the time circuits and the car's flying ability.

There was one hilarious and highly improbably scene in the movie where they were pulling it behind a 6-horse team, but since horses top out around 40 mph, less than half that required for DeLorean time travel, it was improbable that they would have ever tried that in the first place... ( and they only reported 35 mph in the movie...)

I thought of a method involving ropes, a very heavy weight and a cliff (particularly, a mesa, plentiful in the old West - and the new!)

Attach one end of the rope to a fixed location. Attach the other to a heavy weight next to the edge of the mesa, with a line draw between the fixed point and the edge perpendicular to the edge of the mesa. The DeLorean is drawn back such that perhaps it's three times distant from that perpendicular line than between the fixed point and the heavy weight, and with equal amounts of rope between it and both the fixed point and the weight. In addition, there's a (for lack of a better term) sort of capstan around which the length of rope between the DeLorean and the weight is fed such that the pulling point remains on a line between the pulling point and the fixed point that's perpendicular to the velocity vector of the DeLorean

It is such that the DeLorean's velocity vector is parallel to the edge of the mesa (not over it, as some might have thought - remember, the fusion and the flying circuits have been fried).

Then, simply drop the weight off the cliff. It is pulled by gravity, building velocity. As the rope between the pulling point shortens due to the falling weight, it drags the DeLorean along, at first with a large authority of the weight (potential energy), then, as the rope bend angle nears zero, transferring the falling weight's kinetic energy into even more tug.

I feel quite certain that if this system is properly designed, with enough rope to handle the strain, a suitable location, properly calculated weight, etc., it would have no trouble whatsoever of accelerating the DeLorean to 88 mph (or much further).

That's my solution.

I'd like to hear your solutions!

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

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Yep..the plot is still a secret.
I always wondered why he couldn't just fashion a motor to run on Mr Fusion, but, considering they had less than a week, the first thing that came to thier minds that would be feasible would be enough.

Shouldn't this be in media?

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I wonder if it was the tires moving at 88mph or the machine moving relative to the ground?

If it were just the tires, gears and a team of horses could have put it on a treadmill and gotten it up to the required speed.


I think refining alcohol to work in the Delorean would have been easier than all of that.

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I didn't see the movie (I liked the original, though).

I don't see why they couldn't get the desired effect using a sufficient length of rope and a number of pulleys in a block and tackle arrangement.

Horses pull on the part that moves a small amount, while the car moves a large amount. You may need a large number of horses, but they were plentiful in those days, right?

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Put it on a railroad flatcar. Trains could reach 88mph by 1885.

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I happened to think of the problem a few days ago (and I can't remember how it came to mind)--and if I remember right, the only thing wrong with the car they were using was indians shot an arrow in the gas tank and it had no gas. There just HAS to be a way to make Mr. Fusion do that job! 1.41 gigawatts or whatever it was ought to be able to accelerate a car to 88mph somehow.

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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

Well, in early trials they blew the intake manifold, rendering the engine useless.

How Doc, given his PhD would forget to refine the 80-proof into near 100-proof is beyond me, as all gas engines today can run on 200-proof for a short time (certainly enough to get it to 88 mph).

But, he didn't, and fed it 80-proof, which, in the story, blew the intake manifold.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

The future, well....all that I can say is that it shall be no different from the grotty old past....and the strange and messed up present. Oh, and the the first one was good, the last one was ok....and the second is...well I have never seen that one...is it good, bad or ugly? Or is it like an axe in the back.

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Bonus Agricola .

maybe if they had an electric motor at the local hardware store

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-Cross
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Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

I'm not sure my truck can go 88mph

2001 chevy s10 4-cyl.

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

Could you use vegtable oil?

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Actually the third is my favorite, the second is my least favorite, and the third is a close second to my favorite.

But to understand the third, you should watch the second, and in order to watch the second you must first understand the first, which forms the foundation behind the entire series.

dislaimer: i am not a promoter, distributor, or in any way financially connected with anyone who either acted in, directed, wrote the screenplay, produced, was any sort of grip, gate guard, or LA police or wherever these movies were created.

I simply like them for their own right. They're good, they're fun! Highly entertaining.

Back to the movie (it's not yet over...)

__________________
If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

In 1885, Crosscountry?

Resynch your jets, as your misfiring on a few...

__________________
If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

And where is Trebuchet when you need him...

__________________
If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

I'm surprised Doc Brown couldn't put together a simple rocket motor. The Chinese were making rockets way back in the 13th century, and with the Doc's modern knowledge he should have been able to slap together a basic rocket motor using gunpowder or alcohol and attach it to the DeLorean.

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If the engine were a diesel, then perhaps.

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Now there's a word I haven't seen nor heard in a long time: grotty.

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Back to the Future > Back to the Future II > Back to the Future III.

It sort of goes downhill, but with a veeery gentle slope. The second movie is still very watchable, and indeed the third as well.

Mugaliens, wouldn't the rope probably snap?

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that was the point. if Mr Fusion could produce the power you'd still need a motor to turn the wheels. Deloreans were gas powered.

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

Drop the DeLorean from a balloon and deploy a parachute when it reaches the future. It's streamlined and should be able to reach 88 MPH if dropped from a great height.

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Since the setting of 88 MPH was arbitrary, the simplest solution would have been to reset it to 1 and have a couple of cows or horses pull it at a casual walk. I guess he couldn't reset it because of the condition it was in or because of his lack of modern tools...

hey--88mph relative to what? have a train go 44mph pulling a flat bed with the DeLorian on it, have another train pass it going 44mph the other way (may have to go out to a bigger town to find parallel tracks--they had to exist then in some locations) this train hooks the car and yanks it off at 88mph relative to the flat bed.

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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

Are DeLorean's diesel cars? I know squat about cars.

__________________
I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

since only the speedo was required to go the magic number, maybe ......




maybe 88 sounded really fast in 1985 and it wasn't 90mph which would have been too fast and would have set a bad example for children.

__________________
"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

No. John Z. DeLorean was the CEO of GM. He resigned from GM to build his own car. The main selling point of the DeLorean was its stainless steel body work. John's plans were grandiose to say the least. He lost everything when he got caught financing his dream with cocaine money!

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Okay, now I know a bit more than squat about cars. Thanks.

__________________
I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

veggie oil? I think the first diesel cars used veggie oil. Some guy in the midwest sells kits to convert you diesel engine to use used veggie oil instead of diesel.

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Is that guy still alive?

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If I understand this correctly. this would wind up with the DeLorean quite possibly doing the 88mph but finding itself in mid air, at the edge of a long drop, back in 1985. After all, the mesa's not going anywhere. They'll arrive in the same physical location off in the future. Might even achieve 100mph on the way down...

Maybe if you used the weight & a loooong rope to a pulley set way past the DeLorean in the opposite direction to the cliff edge? (the cliff where Doc rescued the woman?) So as the weight drops it pulls the car away from the cliff?

With the right pulley system, you could also get a multiplier factor in the transaction, increasing the acceleration & so decreasing the length of rope.

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i always thought it was cheesy that the way they detected the problem was by seeing the pictures with disappearing people. Like they just stared at the grandfathers paradox and spit in its face.

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