Slashdot Mirror
Chinese MagLev Train Opens Next Week
lupa1420 writes "The Guardian reports on the launch next week of the world's fastest train, 430kph, in China, which uses magnetic levitation technology. Includes instructions on how to make your own maglev demo at home."
I'm no expert on magnetic levitation, but won't the fields totally screw with any electronic device in or near the train? Laptop hard-drives, PDA-memory, IPod disk...
Or is there an obvious and easy way to shield that stuff?
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
how feasible is a maglev system in the US? yeah, it's a pipe dream, but imagine...
Boston to NYC. LA to San Fran. maybe even a network of the major cities.
As it is now, it's cheaper and sometimes faster to take Greyhound than Amtrack! The US spent so much on railroad tracks and most aren't used anymore. Sure the costs would be expensive, but would it be worth it if some of those tracks were replaced to support maglevs?
In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
A few years back they did an analysis of the costs versus benefits of various high speed options. I recall that the MagLev's were way too expensive for the speed you got. As I remember, best results were somewhere in the 180mph range with European style trainsets.
The Maglev technology has been around for over a decade as an experimental track somewhere in Germany.
This is the worlds first "Commercial" Maglev train.
The next step is the development of vacuum tunnels which can be anchored to the seabed. You'd be able to run a maglev train at hypersonic speed as there is no air friction. The only factor limiting the trains speed is how quickly you can accelerate the train without making the passengers sick.
A transatlantic crossing could be one in under an hour.
Sometime in the 1960s Americans lost their enthusiasm for science and futuristic things. But the Chinese retain their enthusiasm and are doing things like going into space, building th world's tallest building, and superfast trains. If you wander around Chinese streets or schools you'll see this enthusiasm in posters and books etc.
Americans got jaded by the liberal pablum of 'Silent Spring' and 'Limits to Growth' in the 1960s. Science became pollutors, war mongers, and could do no right. Though pockets of "true believers" remain in groups like Slashdot, it is sad to live in such an apathetic country.
Wouldn't it be cool to take a 300MPH train from New York to LA?
The average train speed 80 years ago using steam locomotives was faster than what we have today using Diesel and electrics in the UK. In fact, the Mallard regularly did London to Edinburgh at 126mph. We can only dream of speeds like that these days. Today the track determines the top speed and what we have now is apparently crap.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
it's also ridiculous to charge 75 RMB per person, when you consider a taxi ride from Puxi is approximately 180 RMB.
You can say the same about taking a train to London. From Leicester it costs less than half the cost of a train ticket to take a taxi assuming you share with three other people. But then you are stuck in a taxi with three people for the whole journey and it takes longer. People pay ludicrous rail prices because it is quicker and normally their company is paying the expenses anyway.
It is now cheaper to fly to most destinations in the UK than it is to take the train. Example would be, Leicester to Edinburgh 18/01/04 Flying with easyJet = 22.50GBP, By train = 66.50GBP. The train takes 7 hours, whereas the flight is an hour. Which one would you choose?
MagLev offers a lot of the same advantages of air travel. Shorter journey times are better for the traveller, and allow a quicker turn around for the operator which means more tickets sold, presuming there is enough demand. Of course it also has the same disadvantage, high set up costs.
Maybe it doesn't make much sense for a 'normal person' to pay high maglev prices but if it is a business trip then your time is worth more. A client paying someone by the hour doesn't want them on a train for 7 hours doing nothing. Its about balancing different costs.
5.3 teslas apparently. (A tesla is a relatively large unit of magnetic flux density.) By comparison the Earth's natural magnetic field, the one that makes your compass turn, is ~0.00005 teslas.
qntm.org
Interesting post.
I've taken the TGV as well as the Japanese Shinkansen and found both to be about the same in comfort and convenience. (In fact, I'm taking the Shinkansen Saturday morning up to Nagano for some skiing. It seemed weird to take a train to the slopes at first, but it's so convenient that now it would seem really odd to drive there.)
Switching either to maglev would seem a bit pointless. Both seem to work quite well.
As an interesting aside, the train to Narita, (which isn't a bullet train,) *could* make the trip in quite a bit less time than it takes, but they run it slower, as to not put the airport busses and taxis out of business. (Or so I've been told.)
-- My Weblog.