Posted on 07/01/2015 11:56:34 AM PDT by Huskrrrr
I'm writing a fictional novel, which includes development of a maglev hover car. Can anyone point me to scholarly articles regarding magnetic levitation for my research? I have a PhD in chemistry but know very little about physics. Than you so much.
LOL!
A couple of thoughts I had.
The folks posting above are correct about tracks, and those can be imbedded in the roadways.
When a vehicle is floating on maglev, it still has both mass and inertia. Just because it is floating it is not weightless, and once it is moving it will be very hard to stop.
The vehicle will automatically follow the magnetic lines of the track so steering is not an issue, however, accelerating and decelerating become problems when you have to share the track with others how may be entering and leaving traffic flow at any time.
Magnetic propulsion could be used to maintain speed once a vehicle is on the track but accelerating and decelerating for each vehicle individually could be an issue. Maybe retractable wheels for entering and exiting freeways as well as neighborhood streets.
Once the vehicle is at highway speed the wheels retract and the vehicle floats on maglev. Each highway lane is 10 mph faster. On a 6 lane highway the left lane is 60mph faster than the entrance/exit lane.
On-board computers control merging from one lane to the next on highways. Vehicles automatically merge by talking to each other and providing space for merging to other vehicles.
Could the car be controlled by some kind of propulsion system?
Small jets or propellers? But then that would add weight and need energy. The retractable wheels make sense. Thanks!
I think it would be easier to just use the wheels to get to highway speeds and then retract. When exiting highway, once you slow down the wheels go down and you run on those.
The highway system uses magnetic propulsion to keep your speed constant and controlled.
Jets and propellers would probably be too complicated and slow to respond in emergency. Also very energy in-efficient.
Thank you, this helps.
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