N Scale Math Help Needed

[Roger Holmes]

Thursday night I am speaking on the topic of N scale railroading at a Pecha Kucha event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha

To express the cubic size of an N scale 40 foot boxcar I plan to say that you would need to string 160 N scale cars, stacked 160 high and put 160 of those stacks side by side.  Doing the math I come up with 4,096,000 N scale FVM Milwaukee Road ribsides to equal one full size 40 box car.

That seems amazing.  I went into the legal profession because of my lousy math skills.  Is my methodology correct?

Before the  comments about lawyers billing vs. math skills comes up, we have a bookkeeper for that 

[craigolio1]

Sounds about right to me.  Maybe plus one more though.  Surely you could fit one more in.

Craig

[wcfn100]

The math is correct.

It's also the reason why N scale isn't 1/2 the size of HO but 1/8.

Jason

[GaryHinshaw]

In 1 dimension,  multiply by 160.
In 2 dimensions, multiply by 160² = 25,600.
In 3 dimensions, multiply by 160³ = 4,096,000.

But why stop there?  In N dimensions, multiply by 160^N.  String theory posits that space-time is actually 11 dimensional.  An 11-dimensional N scale boxcar is approximately 1759000000000000000000000 times smaller than the prototype.

HTH,

[s40er]

Don't forget to multiply that by how much you'd have to pay for 4,096,000 FVM cars.

[jagged ben]

I knew all about the squared and cubed thing, but having never actually calculated 160^3 before, I'm a bit awed by the number as well.

Here's what I want to know...
In the history of N scale, have 4 million 40' boxcars been made? 
(How about all N scale boxcars?  All N scale freight cars?)

[C855B]

... String theory posits that space-time is actually 11 dimensional.  An 11-dimensional N scale boxcar is approximately 1759000000000000000000000 times smaller than the prototype.

Which is why I have such a hard time with string theory - if the math doesn't fit classical Einsteinian spacetime, then, gee, let's invent some new dimensions and we can balance the equations that way. So convenient.   

[GaryHinshaw]

More math:
Model Railroader's circulation is about 150,000, and we might hope that 20% are N scalers, or about 30,000.  Let's generously suppose there is a turnover of 5% per year in the N scale population, so that 1,500 new N scalers enter the market every year, and have for the 50 years of N scale's existence.  That means 75,000 people have potentially purchased N scale equipment at some time, presumably including one or more 40' boxcars.  To keep the math simple, let's boost that number to 100,000.  If every one of them (us) purchased 40 40' boxcars, you're there.

It's a stretch, but not a crazy stretch, especially if there are many more purchasers than MR readers.

[CodyO]

Gary that's just pure winning math

[Roger Holmes]

In 1 dimension,  multiply by 160.
In 2 dimensions, multiply by 160² = 25,600.
In 3 dimensions, multiply by 160³ = 4,096,000.

But why stop there?  In N dimensions, multiply by 160^N.  String theory posits that space-time is actually 11 dimensional.  An 11-dimensional N scale boxcar is approximately 1759000000000000000000000 times smaller than the prototype.

HTH,

Awe, just when I was getting my head around being correct you go and explode my brain

[u18b]

In 1 dimension,  multiply by 160.
In 2 dimensions, multiply by 160² = 25,600.
In 3 dimensions, multiply by 160³ = 4,096,000.

But why stop there?  In N dimensions, multiply by 160^N.  String theory posits that space-time is actually 11 dimensional.  An 11-dimensional N scale boxcar is approximately 1759000000000000000000000 times smaller than the prototype.

HTH,

Hahaha.  Thanks for that.

[ednadolski]

String theory posits that space-time is actually 11 dimensional.

Where do they get the 11 from?  Why not 10, or 12?   Maybe the guy was counting with his hands in his pockets...?   

Ed

[C855B]

Heh. I was just tweaking Gary. "11" isn't arbitrary. Though I don't pretend to understand it - not even for a nanosecond - the underlying mathematics for string theory resolve with several microdimensions we can't yet observe in our current understanding of the physical world. It's the string theorists' equivalent of the Cosmological Constant, something Einstein invented to make his own equations work, something we are only just beginning to observe/prove (dark matter and dark energy).

[nkalanaga]

For those using pounds, 2000 N scale short tons would equal a pound.  So, your 6000 ton prototype train would weigh an actual 3 pounds in N scale.   

[GimpLizard]

I'm going for a beer.