MAGLEV TRAINS

The Shanghai Maglev: World Fastest Train.

MAGLEV TRAINS (Magnetic levitated Trains)... Heard about them before?

let's discuss them; How do they work?

Maglev Trains happens to be number one on the list of world fastest trains, with the shanghai Maglev hitting hard at a speed of 430km/h (appro. 270mph).

If you are wondering how fast 270mph is, just imagine the speed of the world's fastest production car (The Bugatti Veyron), whose top record speed is 254mph or the speed of a jet at take. (woww right?  right?)

Now what technology make this possible? ELECTROMAGNETISM (Yeah, that's the secret)

Electromagnets are 'temporal' magnets that works when electricity is passed through them. They can be so powerful to levitate the train off the ground (like 10mm), so that, friction is eliminated to an infinitesimal level.

The tracks of the maglev train are lined with strong electromagnets and some has electromagnetic walls too to speed things up (not for all maglevs though). The portion of the electromagnetic wall and track in front of the train pulls the train forward will the ones behind pushes it forward with great force.

An installation called the Guide Way, is responsible for keeping the train on track and also come fitted with electromagnets to provide balance and thrust at the same time.

The innovative use of electromagnetism as the driving force, makes MAGLEV TRAINS noiseless; even at its breathtaking speed.

This is a cool technology, and it all started with physics. 

What do you have to say about this? want a ride?


Care for the list of world fastest trains? Click HERE.

THE PHYSICS OF PSYCHOKINESIS

We asked earlier, what you think of psychokinesis (i.e. the ability to move objects by just thinking of them as you see in most movies like x men) as physicists; and we got nice and amazing answers... now this is what you've been waiting for.

Is psychokinesis really possible?

YES IT IS, IF... (hahahaha, let's go on)
The possibility of psychokinesis just depends on two applications of physics, at least, at the early stage, in order to achieve the ability to move a specific object or group of object in a given direction.

1.BRAIN WAVE RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY for simple commands which may be used for the six basic movement directions like; Left/Right, Up/Down, and Front/Back. This is called Electroencephalography.
-For your info, this is currently possible; thanks to BRAIN-GATE by John Donoghue and team and so many other cool Electroencephalographic machines.

2.APPLICATION OF MEISSNER EFFECT
Magnets tend to levitate when placed closed to a superconductor; this is meissner effect.(More on it later).

So in a nutshell, the person gets to be connected to machine that will recognized his practised and programmed brain signals.
The processor in the machine, processes his waves from the brain and activate the right grid of the superconductor to repel object which must have a magnet in it.
Phew... Sounds easy right? Now the problems...

LIMITATIONS
1. The connection to the brain is not wireless yet and the person gets to have some sensors implanted in his brain.(Who wants that? probably not me)
2. BrainGate is still as large as a washing machine (ops!)
3. It is restricted to a room where the superconductors will be installed to.
4. Also, room temperature superconductor would be required... and this isn't ready yet.
5. Lastly and more badly, a magnet need to be implanted in any object you wish to control.

So... that's it.
What do you have to say about this?

Post by Physics Zone.

CHAPTER 1: FERMIONS

Fermions are the elements that makes up matter. They have half-integer spin and also do obey The Pauli exclusion principle and The Fermi-Dirac Statistics (go to the previous post for a better introduction to fermions)

Nevertheless, the particles under the fermions family, ain't all friends; they are separated into two different types, viz:

1.1) Leptons, and
1.2) Quarks

ATTENTION
Please do know and don't forget that 'leptons' and 'quarks' are not names of fundamental particles but they are the two kinds of fermions. There are 6 fundamental particles under leptons and also 6 fundamental particles under quarks; making it a total of 12 Fermions.
Did you understand? If you don't, please read all over again. Hahahaha 

1.1 LEPTONS
Leptons is the name assigned to the matter forming particles that carries electric charge of 0 or -1. They are never affected by strong Nuclear forces (See my article on ALL THE FORCES IN PHYSICS).

Leptons are of two types, and they are:
a) Charged Leptons with the electrical charge of -1, and they includes (in the other of their increasing mass); 
i) Electron,
ii) Muon, and
iii) Tau

"Please note that Muon and Tau are never stable in existence, hence, they decay to form electrons and other particles which are more stable."

The Atom is Completed by the stable, negatively charged Electron.

b) Neutral Leptons (Neutrinos): which have zero charge and do not interact with anything. They are also very scarce and conspicuous. Moreover, each neutrino is associated to a particular charged lepton and is always seen when that lepton decays as follows;

i) Lightest Neutrino (Electron)
ii) Middle Neutrino (Muon)
iii) Heaviest Neutrinos (Tau)

"It is very much allowed to address a neutrino by the name of the charged lepton it is associated to.E.g. The Lightest neutrino can be called the electron neutrino also."

A non-charged lepton cannot be seen in the decay of another charged lepton that it's not associated with - They have some unsettled family issues , just kidding. 

Some examples of composite particles (FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES combine to form COMPOSITE particles, okay?) formed by leptons includes;

a) The atom is completed by the electron(the most popular lepton)
b) The Positronium is formed by an electron and an antielectron.



1.2 QUARKS
Quarks are leptons with the charges of 2/3 or -1/3. There are six flavors (types) of quarks,
a,b) UP and DOWN quarks,
c,b) CHARM and STRANGE quarks, and
e,f) TOP and BOTTOM quarks

The Up, Charm and Top quarks have a charge of 2/3 while the other three has the charge of -1/3.

Quarks are never found in their separate forms like you may find that lepton named electron (others must be jealous of him, hahaha) and the 'reserved' neutrinos.

Quarks combine with great force carrying particles (we'll talk about this later on chapter 2: BOSONS) to form composite particles called HADRONS.

a) A hadron formed by three quarks is called a BARYON, examples are the;
i) Protons (formed from two UP quarks and one DOWN quark; uud)
ii) Neutrons (formed from two DOWN quarks and one UP quarks; udd)

The Quark Structure of the Neutron and Proton.

b) Finally, a hadron formed from just one quark and an antiquark is called a MESON
examples is the PION (can be formed by an up quark with an anti-down quark  )

So that is it on FERMIONS for now.

Hope that was short enough?

Any questions OR comments, please don't forget to drop them.

That's the topic your high school physics textbook didn't contain completely.
Enjoy!