The Hyperloop Elon Musk (i.e. Mr. Tesla Car) has received “verbal” approval from the government to build the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington.* Called a Hyperloop , this tunnel is a mere 204 miles long, as the crow flies. Basically, this means the creation of a tunnel into the earth of a very slight angle and linear, i.e. perfectly straight, to Washington DC. The length of this underground tunnel will be about 203.98 miles. Not much savings there from the crow’s flight. The interesting point is this tunnel will, at its lowest point be 1.3 miles or about 6866 feet below the earth’s surface. This is deeper than most oil wells. So you take a trip on the new train in this new tunnel, and it gets stuck midway. Will happen sometime. At this depth, the tunnel temperature has increased by 98 degrees F above the mean surface temperature. It’s hot down there. All this implies system failu...