It was a beautiful weekend for me with so much energy inspired by Chelsea's FA Cup victory over Manchester United. Never told you I'm a chelsea fan? oh! Infact, my happiest moment so far was that night Chelsea won the UEFA Champions league. Like really? Yeah.. I love Football and my heart was levitated again, feeling fly with the victory of the FA Cup this time again.
Yes I felt Levitated, like rising into the air, that's exactly how I'm feeling being a fan of Chelsea football club. Though we didn't succeed in securing the Top 4 spot but we are at least left with the celebration of the the mighty English Cup.
Apart from being a fan of football, I also love watching sci-fi movies and I can remember one of the times I was watching a futuristic movie with my dad where flying cars were used. My dad simply stated scornfully that "all these things are lies and are not possible” but here we are today, I'm sorry dad, we don't just have flying cars but even trains. All thanks to the breakthrough in technology known as mag-lev (Magnetic Levitation).
Levitation is such an amazing world that describes the happening of good things in the world. Aside being feeling fly, levitation also comes in describing the beautiful phenomenon that has come to bring great changes to the world.
Welcome to my blog this time again and allow me to take you through the Take-Over Technology of Magnetic Levitation, the wonderful invention contributing largely to the advancement of technology.
Webomedia Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 License: Magnetic Levitation
Magnetic Levitation (Mag-Lev) is simply a process of suspending object in air without any support. it's a way that seem magical but achievable with the help of Magnetic fields. Let me briefly take you through magnetism for a better understanding of the Magnetic Levitation Concept
What is A Magnet?
A magnet basically is a material (a piece of iron or steel) capable of attracting certain substances like iron, steel and other ferromagnetic materials. A magnet produces magnetic field allowing the attraction of other materials possible. Magnets have two poles, the North & South poles with both creating magnetic fields. If you have two magnets, bringing opposite magnetic poles together creates an attractive force while same magnetic polarity creates a repulsive force. So, this means if we position a magnet just exactly above another magnet with the same polarity facing each other, we could achieve the suspension of an object in air. The repulsion product from the interaction of magnetic fields between magnets brings about magnetic Levitation.
Magnetic field are produced for levitation by using natural or permanent magnets or by the use of electromagnets.
An electromagnet is an electric-made magnet. It is made from a coil of wire which act as a magnet when current flows thorough the coil. Whenever a current flows through a conductor, a magnetic field is brought into existence around the space surrounding the conductor as explained by the principle of electromagnetic induction.
You can make a simple electromagnet by wrapping coil of copper wires round a piece of metal, connect the ends of the wire to the positive and negative end of a battery. You will notice the creation of Magnetic field when you try to get the electromagnet in contact with a ferromagnetic material, the magnetic field is taken away when the battery is disconnected from the conductors. That's how simple an electromagnet preforms and can be made. You can read more about electromagnetism on my previous post here
Magnets made as a result of electromagnetism are strong and make large temporary magnet. Electromagnets make a great deal in the concept of Magnetic Levitation
MAGLEV Transportation
Webomedia Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 License: Maglev Transport
The concept of Magnetic levitation have been used in the development of high speed trains known as Maglev trains. Maglev has brought a revolution into transportation with maglev trains running pretty much faster as compared to the traditional railway system..A journey from Lagos to Abuja can be covered within the shortest period of time. Maglev trains are very fast moving trains, safer and more efficient than the traditional railway system.
Concept of Maglev Trains
Three major parts are important in achieving the high speed technology of Maglev trains
- Levitation
- Guidance/Guideway
- Propulsion
The secret behind Maglev trains are all about magnets. Like I explained earlier, a magnet consist of the north and south magnetic poles. The repulsive force of the magnets are used to lift the train. Magnets are embedded beneath the trains which are made to face similar magnetic poles on the track with the train resting on the repulsive force looking as though it was suspended on a stand. The magnets does not just levitates the train but also does the propelling action. The maglev trains requires a power source that is built built into the the rail track, metal coil lining the rail track and guidance magnets attached beneath the train.
The train is levitated by the repulsive force between the train and the rail track and propelled by supplying power to the coils within the rail track creating a magnetic field that pull and push the train along the rail track. The rail track is a long guideway for the train, it's a line of electromagnets powered by alternating current for continuous propulsion of the train.
Maglev trains as compared to traditional trains exhibit a frictionless performance as there are no contact with the guideway, no moving parts thereby making Maglev trains very efficient, faster and quieter. The only friction maglev experience
is the air resistance. Deploying Maglev in vacuum tubes could give less resistance hence, faster speed and more efficiency is achieved.
The world of flying cars could also be possible with magnetic Levitation technology eliminating the dependence on fossil fuel as regards transportation, and reduction in the release of harmful gases to the environment.
Sending objects into space using high speed of Maglev could also be achievable by the use of magnetically levitated track providing speeds enough to fly spacecraft in the space
Loss of energy in machines such as turbines due to friction can be overcome using maglev concept making it frictionless to provide more energy for its use
CONCLUSION
Magnetic levitation is an amazing phenomenon with variety of applications advancing the world technology. Powerful electromagnets are used to develop high speed trains, floating over a guideway using the basic principle of magnet. Maglev trains are the next transportation revolution offering very fast, safer and more energy efficient way of transporting.
However, the cost of implementing Maglev train system is quite outrageous which makes countries not to queue up taking this advantage yet but has been found in use commercially in some part of Asia and Europe.
REFERENCES
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