News on Youtube Apr 2 2018

In this video I'm going to tell you about how much money you need on your SmarTrip card to ride the Washington DC

Metro and how to load it up.

HELLO! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC, my name is Rob. I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital. Ifyou're coming to Washington DC

and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the bell

notification icon so that you don't miss any new videos.

And if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to TripHacksDC.com

afterwards, to see the tours that I offer. If you're new to this channel I actually have several other Metro videos

and I will leave a link to my Metro video playlist in the video description. If you have any questions about using Metro during your

trip, leave a comment on this video and I will try to help you out, otherwise,

let's get started... One question that I get asked a lot is "how much money should I load onto my SmarTrip card?" In my

previous video on the dos and don'ts of Metro, I

suggested buying a SmarTrip card with the $8 default value and topping it up as needed; however if you're coming to DC and you

know you're gonna be staying for a while, or riding the Metro a lot, it might make sense to add more money at the beginning.

Unlike in other cities, our Metro does not use flat fares. What you will pay

depends on how far you travel and whether you're riding during peak time around rush hour or not. For a typical visitor who is staying downtown

and using Metro to get to the major sites,

I would budget $2.50 per ride on average. $2.50

is a good starting point.

For some people it might be too much; for other people it might not be enough. So if you want to get really precise about

it you can actually use the Metro website to find out exactly what the fare is going to be

between two stations. So once you're on

www.wmata.com you're going to find the page for the station where you're starting your trip from. Scroll down a little and then click or tap

"Metrorail Fares" then from the drop-down box select the

station that you want to travel to. In this example if I wanted to travel from Capitol South to Arlington Cemetery

station I would know that it costs $2.50 during peak hours

and $2.20 during off-peak hours.

So if you're a really super organized planner you can look up all of the fares for the trips that you plan to take and

then use a calculator or a spreadsheet to

total them up. Now the next question that I get asked all of the time is

"should I buy an unlimited ride pass?" and my answer to this is almost always

NO

Psychologically we humans love unlimited stuff. The reason is because after you've paid that original amount

everything after that feels free - even though it really isn't. In my experience, most visitors to Washington DC

will not use Metro enough to make an unlimited ride pass worth it. Plus

they're generally confusing and even if they do save you some money,

chances are that that amount is going to be pretty minimal. So since you're not going to be using a pass,

let's say that you loaded your SmarTrip up with $8 like I suggested, but now you're running low,

what do you do?

Topping up your SmarTrip is super simple. Find a fare machine in any station and

start by tapping your SmarTrip up against the target. On the little screen it will tell you exactly

how much money you have on your SmarTrip card. If you have cash

it's as simple as just feeding it into the machine. If you want to pay with a credit card

you can use the up and down buttons to change the amount on the screen and then swipe your card to add it.

After you're done

you just tap your SmarTrip card against that target again to complete the transaction.

But let's say that you forgot to top-up your card and now you're taking a ride

but you don't have enough money on your SmarTrip to cover it. For example if you're taking that $2.50

Arlington Cemetery ride from the example earlier

but you only have

$2.00 on your SmarTrip card

when you go to exit, the fare gates actually won't let you out. What you're going to have to do is use one of the

Exitfare machines to add more money to your card. Now the big, huge annoyance about these Exitfare machines

is that in 2018 they are all cash only, so be mindful to either check your balance before you go into the system,

or carry some small bills with you. And lastly

let's say that you overestimated and overloaded your card

and now you have a balance that you didn't spend. Can you get a refund on your unused balance? The answer to this one is...

Maybe. On the wmata website it says that if you live outside of a 100 mile radius of Washington DC or Baltimore

you may be eligible for a refund on your balance and to contact SmarTrip customer support to discuss. Now,

I have never personally tried this because I obviously don't live a hundred miles or more away, and note that the words "may be

eligible" are quite vague, and

contact customer service "to discuss" is also rather vague, so whether this will actually work,

I have no idea, but if you have a large balance on your card, and you really want that money back

it's worth a try.

Alternatively there are some charities here in town that will accept a SmarTrip card with a balance on it.

They will use the balance to help the less fortunate get to job interviews, doctor's appointments, and that sort of thing, and I will leave

a link in the video description

to one of those charities if you have a smart trip card that you want to mail to them. And that's it!

Thank you for watching this video. If you found it helpful you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks DC logo

which is popping up right now at the bottom of the screen.

And if you're coming to DC and want to sign up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, you can click on the Capitol dome on

the left side of my head,

that'll take you over to TripHacksDC.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!

For more infomation >> DC Metro SmarTrip Card - How Much Money Do You Need? - Duration: 5:12.

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HỎI NGƯỜI NƯỚC NGOÀI: Đâu Là Thủ Đô của Việt Nam? - How much Foreigners Know About Vietnam - Duration: 10:55.

For more infomation >> HỎI NGƯỜI NƯỚC NGOÀI: Đâu Là Thủ Đô của Việt Nam? - How much Foreigners Know About Vietnam - Duration: 10:55.

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Chinese space station Tiangong-1: How much DAMAGE will it cause when it SMASHES into Earth - Duration: 3:37.

Chinese space station Tiangong-1: How much DAMAGE will it cause when it SMASHES into Earth

CHINESE space station Tiangong-1 is fast approaching

Earth and is set to reach speeds of nearly 17,000 mph, but how much damage will it actually

cause when it smashes into the planet?

Only around 10 percent of the 8.5-ton spacecraft is likely to survive.

This will most likely be its heavier components such as its engines.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics said on Twitter: "Remember:

1) this thing will reenter spectacularly but it will (almost super certainly) not hurt

anyone.

"2) We may not know that it's come down until an hour or so after it actually has

done."

The chances of any one person being hit by debris are considered less than one in a trillion

by the Aerospace Corporation.

Most of the space station will dissipate in the air and a small amount of debris will

fall relatively slowly before landing across hundreds of square miles, most likely in the

ocean.

The ocean covers more than 70 per cent of the Earth's surface.

The European Space Agency said that nearly 6,000 uncontrolled re-entries of large objects

have occurred over the past 60 years and none of them have caused any harm.

The largest object to renter Earth to date was Russia's MIR space lab in 2001 which weighed

120 tonnes.

Meterologist Bryan Bennett said: "When it reaches 65 miles above the Earth it will no

longer be able to orbit and will begin its rapid re-entry.

"Atmospheric breakup will begin when it reaches 50 miles above the Earth and undergo

a fiery reentry until about 30 miles."

Andrew Abraham, a senior member of Aerospace's technical staff, said: "We know that Tiangong-1

is tumbling, or at least it was when Germany took a radar update, so the question is it

still tumbling, and is the tumbling getting faster or slower."

The Chinese tabloid Global Times said on Monday worldwide media hype about the re-entry reflected

overseas "envy" of China's space industry.

It said: "It's normal for spacecraft to re-enter the atmosphere, yet Tiangong-1 received

so much attention partly because some Western countries are trying to hype and sling mud

at China's fast-growing aerospace industry."

Beijing said on Friday it was unlikely any large pieces would reach the ground and would

therefore be unlikely to cause any damage.

China had said its re-entry would occur in late 2017 but that process was delayed, leading

some experts to suggest the space laboratory is out of control.

The space station, also known as "Heavenly Palace 1", was launched in 2011 to carry

out docking and orbit experiments as part of China's ambitious space programme, which

aims to place a permanent station in orbit by 2023.