What is a reasonable g-force that the human body could be comfortable with?

Question

Let's say that we were able to build an extremely high speed railroad from Los Angeles to New York (2450.9 miles). What would be the maximum g-force and speed that the train could attain with the passengers being comfortable? How long would the trip take? Assume there is no acceleration or speed limits and the train is perfectly safe.

Answer 1

you will blackout at 9g so less than that would be good......lol

Answer 2

OK, so you are sitting in your seat. I would say you would want to limit the acceleration to less than one g to help pacify the elderly, the timid, and any children that may scare easily.

One g of acceleration is really QUITE A LOT to someone that never experiences a fast accelerating object.

You can travel at 50000 mph if you can figure out how to do it, but you will not feel uncomfortable at that speed, because it is CONTINUOUS.

You only experience g forces when you speed up or slow down, there is no sensation of speed while traveling at a continuous speed.

Answer 3

Excerpted from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force.  Has much more info re g-force.

Human tolerance to g-force

Human tolerances depend on the magnitude of g-force, the length of time it is applied, the direction it acts, the location of application, and the posture of the body.

The human body is flexible and deformable, particularly the softer tissues. A hard slap on the face may impose hundreds of g-s locally but not produce any real damage: a constant 15 g-s for a minute, however, may be deadly. When vibration is experienced, relatively low peak g levels can be severely damaging if they are at the resonant frequency of organs and connective tissues.

To some degree, g-tolerance can be trainable; and there is also considerable variation in innate ability between individuals. Further some illnesses reduce g-tolerance, particularly cardiovascular problems.

Answer 4

Texpilot's answer is saying exactly what I would have only he did it much better. Speed can be anything as long as the acceleration/deceleration is limited to no more than 1 or thereabout G's