Minecart

A minecart is both an item and a vehicle entity.

Obtaining
Minecarts can be retrieved by them for some time. Attacking the minecart with a sword or a bow will instantly destroy it. They will also be destroyed if they make contact with a cactus.

Other minecarts
Minecarts with chests, minecarts with hoppers, minecarts with furnaces, and minecarts with TNT, will drop 1 minecart and the block put in it when destroyed, Minecart with Command Blocks can only be given to the player with the /give command. Minecarts with spawners will only drop 1 minecart when broken. Like Minecarts with Spawners, Minecarts with Command Blocks will only drop 1 minecart when broken. Also, the latter two can only be used with commands.

Usage
A minecart can be placed in the same manner as most blocks, but can only be placed on top of a rail. Once placed, it may be derailed by pushing it off the end of the track. After this, it can be railed again by placing a rail directly below it, or pushing it onto a track.

Transportation


Minecarts can be ridden by on them. Once inside, an external impulse may be needed to make the minecart start moving. The player can slowly move the minecart forwards while riding it, by pressing. If a mob walks in front of an empty minecart, it will be pulled into the cart.

Players can exit the minecart by pressing, however if there is only one block of headroom above the cart the player will take of suffocation damage as their head will be temporarily in the ceiling. When a minecart is exited, it searches for an adjacent or diagonal 2×2×3 area to put the player 1.5 blocks away from the cart. If none are available, the player is deposited directly above the minecart. Consequently, the player falls inside the minecart.

After rolling off of the end of a track, a minecart can be pushed around on open blocks. If a minecart is pushed onto or falls onto tracks, it will "snap" to those tracks. When riding a minecart, if the minecart lands on a rail, the player will not take any fall damage.

Speed
Minecarts have a predefined speed limit of 8 m/s per axis of travel. (1 block = 1 meter; 8 m/s = 28.8 km/hr.) A minecart traveling diagonally can therefore travel up to 11.314 m/s (i.e. the square root of the quantity 82 + 82) When a minecart comes to a turn it moves diagonally across that turn.

Powered rails powered by redstone will give minecarts a boost of speed. Speed is gradually decreased if there are no powered rails to assist its movement. The speed decreases at a faster rate when going uphill, compared to when moving horizontally. A minecart does not need powered rails to assist its movement down a hill.

Anything in the way of the minecart will take it to a dead stop. Once a minecart has left the track, it will rapidly decelerate within one or two blocks. When a mob touches a minecart they affect it in the same way a player would, i.e. mobs that move up against a still cart will set it in motion.

If a minecart is moving fast enough, it can skip across one block without a track and reattach to track on the other side, at significantly reduced energy and speed.

Merged minecarts
Merged minecarts are two or more minecarts merged. Their special feature is their odd way of losing speed. When coming off a track, merged minecarts initially lose their speed to around walking speed. But after first contact, they won't lose their speed anymore.

This way they can be used to cross certain distances when the player's only goal is to not actively walk towards the player's goal / target. Or when the player doesn't have enough resources to cover the complete distance, this measure can be considered. Note: for this concept to work, at least 3 minecarts will have to be merged. Doing this can detach the minecarts by pushing one off of the rails, or the one the player is riding might get stuck on a tight turn. Speed may decrease when merged. This can be used to get the "On A Rail" achievement.

Unoccupied carts, incline with boost
This table shows the distance traveled by an unoccupied minecart on an incline, with a boost (or no boost). The most efficient way is to use only 1 boost at the bottom of the incline on the flat surface. Using 2 will increase by about 20% or 1.5m. All distance trends based on the height seem to be logarithmic. The carts started from rest, on an incline (at Height).

Collision
Minecarts seem to be about the same size as a block (1x1). Because of this, a ladder, door or trapdoor will prevent it from falling down a 1x1 hole.

Carts on rails will also ignore collision in certain situations. A cart traveling uphill, downhill, or on a curve with a block placed in front of it will go through the block.

A player or mob riding in a minecart will not collide with or suffocate in any transparent blocks.

They will be suffocated if their heads run into any opaque block.

Mobs
Most mobs can ride minecarts, but only some types of mobs can control them. Mobs cannot exit the minecart unless the minecart is destroyed or moves onto an active activator rail. Endermen therefore are unable to teleport out of minecarts.

If the player pushes a mob on a minecart or a mob moves into the minecart's space, the mob will ride it. Some mobs are able to nudge minecarts while in them, like players.

Tamed wolves will follow the player when in a minecart.

The player can bump a medium slime in a minecart, and it will be unable to attack. However, a large slime is able to attack.

Entity data
Minecarts have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity. Their entity ID is.

ID
A minecart's ID distinguishes between the different minecart types.

Trivia

 * Minecarts appear to float above the track, as their model has no wheels.
 * If you view your inventory while riding in a minecart you will appear sitting down in mid-air.
 * You are able to teleport to another minecart while sitting in a minecart by right clicking a minecart in your range.
 * If the sound is muted in the options while riding a minecart, and then turned back up, the minecart will no longer make noise in your client until you exit the minecart.
 * If a minecart is shot with a bow and arrow, the minecart will get destroyed.
 * If a saddled pig is riding a minecart, the player can ride the pig. Doing so will cause the minecart to be able to ride freely at the player's walking speed. It is unknown whether this is a glitch or not.