
Is Google Going Underground with Hypersonic Tech? - charlysl
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/is-google-going-underground-with-hypersonic-tech
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awakeasleep
"The system will be 5 times cheaper than current drilling methods"

When did it become acceptable to write nonsense like that? How can something
be five times less expensive? What is wrong with saying "one fifth the price?"

It's not just this author, I see this in print media everywhere.

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sixothree
Does "5 times cheaper" even mean 1/5th of the price?

To me, 5 times cheaper implies the starting point is not price of the thing
being compared to. "5 times cheaper" sounds like it could be 80% of the price
of normal methods.

Method A: $1005 Method B: $1000 Method C: $975

Method C seems to be 5 times cheaper than Method B.

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h1boo
Last quarter we went from $1000 profit to $1001. This quarter the profits were
$1003. "Our profits grew 200% compared to last quarter, stocks are through the
roof this morning".

Is there some phrase in stats used to describe this nonsense?

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nsxwolf
Relative vs. absolute gain?

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jamesdgb
I have found the link from the article very interesting.

[https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/diggi...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/digging-
for-geothermal-energy-with-hypersonic-projectiles)

It is basically using ramjet technology (such as in the Lockheed D-21), but
it's kind of the inlet shape which moves through air enriched with combustible
at hyper-sonic speed, on impact the projectile just vaporizes.

edit: the gif animation at the top of the article is very misleading

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ferros
Yes, please go underground.

The last thing we need are swarms of vehicles filling our skies.

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ZenoArrow
This is more than just for vehicles.

What I'd hope is that it would bring down the cost of ground source heat
pumps.

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Robotbeat
Nothing to do with ground source heat pumps, tho. This is for geothermal
energy. Ground source heat pumps don't need a hypersonic drill tech as they're
generally going through soil, not bedrock.

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jessaustin
This really depends on the location. Many locations that are not generally
flat floodplains (or glacial plains? IANAGeologist) don't have enough soil for
this purpose.

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theptip
> HyperSciences is developing a novel drilling system that fires concrete
> projectiles at over 2 kilometers per second in advance of a drill bit. It
> claims that its system can drill deep wells up to 10 times faster than
> existing systems, enabling geothermal energy “anywhere in the world.”

That sounds quite exciting!

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mrfusion
Why do they need to drill 150 meters down to reach 50f temperatures? Most
geothermal heat pump systems are six feet!

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Robotbeat
Geothermal energy, not geothermal heat pumps. Think geysers and volcanoes, not
pumping heat into or out of a lump of ground.

It's a pet peeve of mine that everyone seemed to think it was a good idea to
call ground-source heat pumps "geothermal." Of _course_ it would lead to
confusion. _shakes fist angrily at sky_ :)

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adrianmonk
The article covers two different things. There's something called Dandelion’s
that goes 150 meters down for heat pump purposes. And then there's something
else that goes 7 kilometers down for geothermal energy purposes.

The geothermal energy thing is the main subject of the article, but for
whatever unknowable reason, the author of the article mentioned the heat pump
thing as context.

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X6S1x6Okd1st
This is a pretty click baity title.

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rmm
This would be useful for exploration drilling in mining...

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ginko
What business does a software company have to go into tunneling?

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scottmp10
My first thought was that it was part of Google Fiber's efforts to make
running cable cheaper. Looks like another moonshot though.

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taneq
Betteridge's law of headlines says no.

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charlysl
This is true.

 _Betteridge 's law of headlines is one name for an adage that states: "Any
headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."_

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youdontknowtho
No, but their marketing is top notch.

