Minecart

Minecarts are rideable objects placed on minecart tracks that are used to carry items, mobs, and the player. They have practical uses, as they can cover long distances much faster than walking. Additionally, they are used for recreation - intricate roller coasters have been created through clever track placement and design.

Minecarts are placed in the same manner as other blocks, however they can only be created on top of minecart track. Once placed, they may be derailed by pushing them off of the end of the track. Unlike boats, minecarts are not buoyant, and thus cannot be used for water elevators.

Crafting
Minecarts can be crafted via the following formula:



It is worth noting that minecarts are non-stackable.

Once placed, minecarts can be destroyed and reverted to a carriable item, even while being ridden (though this will cause the player to fall through the block below). Stone (or better) swords revert minecarts in one hit with no decrease in durability, whereas steel picks require two hits. Two arrows suffice, but they will be lost just as if used on a mob.

Trivia

 * Minecarts appear to float above the track, as their model has no wheels.

Basic
Minecarts can be ridden by right-clicking them. Once inside, the player can't move, so an external impulse (a powered minecart or booster) is required to set the cart in motion. It is possible to push the minecart manually and then jump in.

Players can exit the minecart by right clicking it, however there must two blocks of headroom above the cart to avoid taking damage. It is possible to interact with the environment while riding a cart, such as shooting a bow at enemies or laying down track in front of the minecart while it is moving.

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 falling minecart, landing will deal no damage.

A minecart will stop when it encounters a dropped item.

If an animal is hit or pushed into a rideable minecart, they will ride it. They will escape if the player right clicks to ride it themselves (pushing out the animal) or if the cart is destroyed. They may also exit after a while.

Energy Conservation
The minecart physics have been noted to be very unrealistic. Once pushed downhill a minecart will gain speed at an increasing rate until it reaches a cap. It also moves significantly faster/farther when ridden by a player rather than when pushed empty. An example of this is riding a minecart after being pushed up/down a slope of one block after which it will travel around an amazing 78 blocks, though very slowly by the end. A player can rapidly re-enter the cart or add boosters on tracks to increase speed.

Although the minecart has a maximum speed (8 m/s, 1 block = 1 meter), it does not appear to have a maximum energy. One can create a slope upwards of a tested 60 blocks, and achieve further and further travel distances.

One unit of energy could be defined as the energy gained by a cart going down a one block slope, and lost by a cart when it goes up a one block slope. If a 45 degree downward slope is connected directly into an upward slope, an initial height of 60 blocks will result in a final height of 40 blocks, a loss of 20 units of energy. But if 20 sections of flat track are inserted between the slopes, the final height will be 35. This implies that one unit of energy is lost for every 4 sections of horizontal track traveled with an initial stored energy of between 60 and 40. At much lower speeds, much less energy is lost, implying that the energy lost is a percentage of the cart's current energy. The above gives about 0.5% energy loss per section of track. One implication of this is that more energy lost when the cart has more energy, so a gradual slope should allow you to travel much farther distances than a steep slope followed by a long flat section.

Anything in the way of the minecart will take it to a dead stop, including: blocks, items, mobs, and moving off of minecart tracks. (However, it seems to keep a small part when it falls immediately after coming off the tracks.) When a mob touches a minecart they affect it in the same way a player would, i.e. minecarts in motion bounce away from mobs in the way of its motion and mobs that move up against a still cart will set it in motion.

Boosters
Minecarts can act very strangely when they're next to each other - they accelerate rapidly. This effect is used to create boosters. A booster consists of a short track with another minecart placed next to the track you want to boost. The two tracks will have one or more squares of contact. When your minecart is next to the other cart, they will both accelerate and gain momentum. There is a maximum speed (8 m/s, 1 block = 1 meter), but there is no maximum momentum. If a cart gains too much energy, glitches may occur. A good way to avoid this is to make sure that no cart is incrementing its energy over a long period time (caused by a loop without stops).

Example of two boosters in a loop. The first booster loop is giving the cart more and more momentum over time, which will eventually cause glitches. The second booster loop resets the momentum by stopping every cart every iteration, making it more reliable.

Here are two possible configurations for one-way resetting boosters - the one on the left is a south->north booster, the one on the right is a west->east booster.



Here is an example of a two-way resetting booster that is direction-independent (its cardinal direction doesn't matter):



Boosting Principle
Do take note that the methods above are not the only configurations that can be used to boost a minecart. Instead, rely on the following principle when designing booster systems:
 * A minecart pair will boost when they are side-by-side.
 * As long as the carts are side-by-side, more momentum/energy will be gained.
 * It is usually desired to make the booster cart reset itself after use (i.e., return to it's original position) so it can be used again right away, but this is not required.
 * The south-west rule or other track layout techniques can be used to accomplish this reset.
 * A cart will slow down if it approaches a neighbor cart head-on (e.g., not off of a slope or curve), and a proper boost will not be accomplished. Keep this in mind when designing two-way systems. The following diagrams illustrate this concept:

Good (will result in a boost)




Bad (will slow down cart)




Special Minecarts
There are currently two types of special minecarts:
 * Powered Minecart - A self-propelled minecart that is powered by fuel.
 * Storage Minecart - A minecart that can store items like a standard chest.

Minecart Trains


After Friday July 30th's Minecart update, creating Minecart trains became a much simpler solution to transporting goods. To create a train, start with a fairly short length of straight track with an open ending on one side. Put a Powered Minecart on the side nearest the open end, and then add Storage Minecarts or ridable Minecarts along the rest of the track. Then, turn on your Powered Minecart. It will push the other Minecarts as if it were a Minecart Train. Placing an additional Powered Minecart on the other end will allow you to make a two-way train, as minecarts currently only push other carts, not pull.

Glitches

 * Destroying a minecart while riding in said minecart will cause the player to fall through the block below the minecart. This can be used to make secret entrances into bases, though entry in this way will cause the loss of half a heart due to a short moment of suffocation.