Figuring out what would qualify as a racetrack is the first problem. Finally he decides that what he wants is for two different balls to follow two different courses that are as identical as he can make them, and arrive at the same destination. He circles the contraption several times, estimating how symmetrical he can get it and whether he will have to sacrifice the infinite loop. It looks like he will. Sorry, infinite loop. At least he makes sure to undo the loop gently enough that the ball isn't lost to the floor like so many of its brethren.
A few minutes of careful construction and testing later, he has two long near-identical courses spiraling down and then up again from two adjacent entry points controlled from the same station. If they're truly identical, the balls will collide in midair, up near the top of the contraption; if one course gives better acceleration than the other, the winner will pass through that space first; and either way, both balls will hopefully be caught by the leftover contraption elements he set up for that purpose, but he can't be sure they won't fall on the floor until he tries it.
He releases his racers simultaneously into their respective tracks.
They pick up speed pretty fast - he thinks he might have underestimated how much acceleration they're getting from those long curving sections. In fact he's now kind of worried that—
CRACK.CRACK.
Miles makes enough semirandom changes to scramble his racetrack-railgun past recovery as quickly as possible, and then he steps away from the contraption's enclosure, which now has two spectacular spiderwebbing cracks in its glass walls, up high on opposite sides of the enormous cylinder.
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A few minutes of careful construction and testing later, he has two long near-identical courses spiraling down and then up again from two adjacent entry points controlled from the same station. If they're truly identical, the balls will collide in midair, up near the top of the contraption; if one course gives better acceleration than the other, the winner will pass through that space first; and either way, both balls will hopefully be caught by the leftover contraption elements he set up for that purpose, but he can't be sure they won't fall on the floor until he tries it.
He releases his racers simultaneously into their respective tracks.
They pick up speed pretty fast - he thinks he might have underestimated how much acceleration they're getting from those long curving sections. In fact he's now kind of worried that—
CRACK. CRACK.
Miles makes enough semirandom changes to scramble his racetrack-railgun past recovery as quickly as possible, and then he steps away from the contraption's enclosure, which now has two spectacular spiderwebbing cracks in its glass walls, up high on opposite sides of the enormous cylinder.