Maglev trains - Levitating speed monsters.

 by

     Chinmaya Srivatsa.


MAGLEV TRAINS

What are maglev trains?

Image Source : https://www.revistaenergia.com/18440/

 

Around 4000 years ago, a shepherd in Greece discovered that iron nails that were used to hold his slippers together and the metal tip of his walking stick were getting stuck to the rock he was standing on. This part of Greece where this incident took place was called Magnesia and the shepherd’s name was Magnes. Thus, this rock got its name derived as Magnetite. Little did the shepherd know that this rock was going to be a highly precious discovery to humans. Want to know what that discovery is?

 

Nowadays it is commonly called Magnet and is made from Neodymium, Iron, Ceramic, Samarium and Alnico. It is very common to find at least one of these magnets in every household either on the fridge or almirah. Many kids while playing with these might have noticed that a few times the repel each other and don’t get stuck to each other. But, did you know that repulsive force of these magnets could be used to repel things that weigh tons towards an anti-gravity direction?

 

This idea is what struck English inventor Eric Laithwaite who went on to invent Maglev train technology This technology was put to commercial use in 1984 with a Maglev train opening in Birmingham. But, due to design and reliability issues it was closed in 1995. Want to know what technology he developed?

 

Science and technology behind it

Image Source : https://phys.org/news/2016-06-maglev.html

 

Maglev trains are trains which levitate using the repulsive nature of magnets. Magnets have two ends which are named as south and north poles. When 2 magnets are brought together with the same poles facing each other, they repel. THis is called Repulsion. When 2 magnets are brought together with different poles facing each other, they attract each other. This is called Attraction. A type of magnet called electromagnet was discovered by Christian Oersted. When electricity was passed through a copper wire coiled around an Iron nail it temporarily became a magnet. This type of magnet also has North and South poles which repel like poles and attract dissimilar poles. This property of repulsion can be used to levitate heavy things such as the train and the properties of attraction from the front and repulsion from the back are both used to propel the train forward. These 2 forces together work to propel the train forward at speeds higher than planes.

 

Anyone can do an experiment at home to prove that Magnetic levitation and propulsion is possible: If you are not interested in doing an experiment you may skip to the 3rd para after this.

 

 We can do this by coiling a long string  of copper into a long coil wide enough to fit an AA battery inside but still have a little extra space which will form the track in which our train will go. The train is made by a AA battery and 2 magnets on each of its sides which too can fit into the coil. When the battery and magnet train is put into the copper coil the train moves through the coil to the other end but does not levitate.

 

 

Even Magnetic Levitation can be proven. For this we will need 1  wooden piece, 2 right angled glass pieces 1 wooden block and 4 bar magnets. Stick the magnets to the wooden block such that North poles are on 1 side and South poles are on the other. Then, stick the 2 glass pieces to the wooden board such that they create a u-shaped track in which the wooden block can be perfectly fit. On the bottom part of the u-shaped track, stick magnets such that north poles are on 1 side and south poles are on the other side. Now slowly place the wooden block with magnets such that the south poles sit on the south poles and north poles sit on the north poles. Carefully place it in the described position and you will observe that the wooden block will levitate a few millimetres above the magnets at the bottom.


 

After reading all this, a million questions might have popped up into your mind. If this technology is so easy that it can be replicated at home then why do we still have diesel trains chugging tons of smoke into the air? Why are there slow trains which take many hours to travel a few hundred kilometres? Why don’t we have Maglev Trains everywhere? Or do we have any trains that are running already? You are about to find out for yourselves

 

Current projects around the world


MAGLEV trains are really difficult to replicate in real life. They need years of research to be commercialised for widespread use and also need huge amounts of money to build as they are highly expensive as of today. Even with these difficulties, China has achieved creating a Maglev train.

 

China has the world’s one and only commercially operating Maglev train in its city of Shanghai. It can run at speeds of upto 431 km/h and took upto $4,00,00,000 per km to build. This huge expense was followed by high operating costs which caused the company huge losses of upto $1000000000. Even though this project was a huge loss, the experience of travelling at such high speeds is still fascinating.

 

Image Source : https://in.pinterest.com/pin/12413053345188

 

Pros and cons

Pros:

Traditional trains are slow, polluting, high energy consuming and noisy. All of this has been solved in the maglev trains!!! Maglev trains can go upto 1000 km/h and have a potential to go upto 3500 km/h. They are totally environmentally friendly as they only use electricity for propulsion and levitation. They do consume a lot of energy for levitation but for the propulsion, they use very little energy. The Maglev trains rarely create any noise which is good for both humans and nature to co-exist. But, all these benefits come with some issues.

 

Cons:

Traditional trains are cheap, easy to construct, easy to operate and have a much higher carrying capacity. Even flying through an airplane is becoming as cheap as travelling in trains with advancements in technology. Maglev trains will be defeating the purpose if goods are being transported as there is not enough space inside the Maglev trains to hold cargo as of now. Also Air travel becoming cheap will be a huge competition Maglev has to face if it needs a market. Maglevs are also difficult to construct as they include placing  a lot of magnets in the tracks and this is also costly as magnets or electromagnets are not so cheap. In short, Maglev has a lot of issues to solve before going into the market.

Conclusion

As Ancient Greek philosopher Plato said “ Necessity is the mother of invention”. This can’t be denied even now. The Maglev train was also invented based on the necessity of a high speed train. This was sought as a necessity during 1984 when Eric Laithwaite invented the concept of Maglev trains. At that time, Air travel was for the rich and wealthy. Almost 3 times today’s cost of flying. But, now everyone can afford Air Travel owing to efficient fuel consuming Jet Engines and better aerodynamic shapes of the Aeroplanes. At this time, if Maglev trains were to enter no person would be ready to invest in them. So, Maglev trains as we may think now after reading all the information above, might not be the way ahead in transportation. But, we must not forget one thing. Air travel needs huge airports, runways and terminals which are way too costly to build and maglev trains only need tiny stations almost as big as any central railway station of a city. So, maybe with further advancement in technology, we could have Maglev trains come into the market, open for users and it might eradicate the need for old style trains which pollute, make noise pollution and are inefficient. It may also make the aviation industry look small if a global network of tracks is set up. In short, Maglev trains are the future of railways.


Thank You.

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