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About
Maglev is
a system in which the vehicle runs levitated from the guide way by
using electromagnetic forces between super conducting magnets on board
the vehicle and coils on the ground. Magnetic levitation is the process
by which an object is suspended above another object with no other
support but magnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is used to
counteract the effects of the gravitational force. See the sections
on technical terms for more detail. 
Top View
of MagLev
Testing
To have a successful Maglev, your vehicle had to go from start to
finish. We did not time the trials, but the faster the vehicle went
from start to finish the better it was. My car had no problem going
all the way to finish. It actually gained speed as it went.
Testing
my MagLev Car
Design
For this design, I used reverse engineering. In other words, I designed
my Maglev from the bottom to the top. The most important aspect
of the car was the magnets and their location. Thus, I started with
the magnets determining their polarity. I figured it was going to
be hard lining them up in the correct location, so I first glued
the magnets onto two balsa strips. Then I cut out a block of Styrofoam
as my body. I used stryofoam because of its weight and easy to work
with. I initially taped the strips of magnets to the stryofoam to
estimate their location. After I knew exactly where they were supposed
to be, I glued them in place. I knew I wanted to use a propeller
and motor as my form of propulsion, so I had to add enough magnets
to support the weight. I then soldered together the motor, battery,
and a switch. I had a lot of trouble balancing the weight on the
vehicle. Also, I ended up having to add 4 wheels for guidance purposes.
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Constructing
MagLev
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Problems
and Solutions
One of the biggest
problems was the track was not the same width throughout. It
was much skinner at the start than the finish. Thus, when designing
my vehicle I had to account for this. One of the most difficult
things during construction was to get the magnets in the exact
location over the track. I had to keep moving and playing around
with them before finding the exact spot. A big flaw of the track
was that the sides were made out of angle iron, which has magnetism.
Ideally, the sides should |
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be made from plastic. Thus, once the magnets where in place
the sides of the track kept attracting them, causing the vehicle
to not want to glide smoothly. To solve this problem, I first
glued thin strips of acrylic along the sides. However, I found
out the magnetism goes through plastic, so this didn’t
work. Then, I added wheels. This worked great, but only after
adjusting them numerous times. I used a nail so it would allow
for adjusting. Another problem I encountered were balancing
the weight. I ended up having to add weight to the front left
for the vehicle to be balance while gliding.
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