Maglev Trains in Real Life

The “Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev Project”, a 54-mile long stretch from the Pittsburg international airport to the city of Greensburg and then maybe connecting it to Philadelphia, which would reduce travel time from 6 hours by car to less then 2 hours by train.

 

The 110-mile “Atlanta-Chattanooga Maglev” would connect the two cities, while adding stops along the way. Upon completion it is estimated that a total of 11,00 would use the train daily. Currently the construction of such a train would be $6-$9 billion.

 

Works Cited

Westerfeld, Scott. Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider's Guide to the World of Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2008. Print.

First Maglev Train

Although this experiment is straightforward, there are actual maglev trains that are used in the real world. Some have said that maglev trains will become more and more popular as a choice transportation. Because maglev trains levitate above the tracks, the amount of friction is greatly reduced, allowing the trains to travel at incredible speeds. Maglev trains in use can travel at 500 kilometers per hour (310 mph) with passengers aboard, but as technology progresses and the use of maglev trains increases, it is likely that they will be able to travel much faster for the convenience of the fast-paced society we live in today. 

 

The first maglev train was introduced to society in December, 2003 in Shanghai, China.

How does our train levitate?

   
     Magnets each have a north polarity and a south polarity. The north side of one magnet would be attracted to the south side of another, just as the north side of one magnet would repel the north side of another magnet. These properties of magnets have been studied and used by scientists and physicists for many years, but according to many sources, the actual physics behind the laws is complicated to understand and explain. Therefore, the principles of magnets are just facts that will have to be accepted in order to go on with the explanation of our maglev train venture.

     For our project, the two long magnetic strips were both glued with the south sides facing upwards. Then the shorter magnetic strips were glued to the “train” with the south sides also facing upwards. When the train is placed between the guiderails on top of the tracks, the magnetic strips repel each other because the magnets have the same polarity. This makes it so that the train actually floats more than half an inch above the tracks!

Works cited

           Bosnor, Kevin. “How Maglev Trains Work”. howstuffworks.com. How Stuff Works, Inc. October 2004.

Accessed May 24, 2012. http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/maglev-train.htm

Finishing building our train!

Got our glue and we have finished building our train! (May 25th)

 

We were a little disappointed at the results. The train floats but it looks like it is stuck on the railing (but it really is not). You can feel the pull of the magnets as you push the train for it to float along the track.

Building our maglev train!

Started building our levitating train (on May 17th).
 Here are some pictures!

We ran out of superglue though... so we had to stop with just the rails.
The attempt of using a hot glue gun and hodge podge was not successful...