Vactrain

It was 1999 and I was in class XI. I was always very interested in Physics. I understood it a lot better than Chemistry. Sucked very bad in Chemistry. It was the reason my board percentage suffered :( Would have definitely crossed 90 otherwise.

I had just learnt about magnetism and electromagnetism. I was very fascinated about like poles repelling each other. The concept of the magnetic field amazed me and I was really excited to do the magnetic field line experiment. What we basically did was put 2 magnets at a distance with their opposite poles facing each other and then sprinkle iron filings on a paper above it and then slowly shake the paper. The iron filings would get attracted by the magnets and would bunch up together to form the field lines.

During one of our class discussions, I had a brilliant idea. I reasoned with my physics madam, that if we had a magnet in the shape of a long plate with the 2 poles as either face and we place a magnetic object which is repelled by one side of the plate, then it would float above the plate. The gravitation pull would be balanced by the repelling force of the magnet. Then if we can "somehow" make it move along this plate, then the whole problem of friction, wear and tear could be solved. And it also felt that since the object would be suspended in mid air it would require less energy to move it and hence save whatever the source of energy would be used.

After pondering a bit more about it, i came to the conclusion that if we placed the whole thing inside a vacuum chamber then even the air friction could be removed and at high speeds, air friction plays a major role. I suggested the idea to my teacher. She said its interesting and I should try doing it, maybe as a class XII project. Funnily enough, I never followed it. Instead I studied surface tension and the capillary action of soap water and as a result judge which was a better detergent :P

Just a few days ago I came across an article on the web on vactrain, the future of maglevs and I smiled to myself. Here's a link to it,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain

I am sure the idea came into a lot of people's head. In fact, I guess its one of the first things that a person thinks of once they learn about magnetism, but it made me realize that no matter how far fetched an idea could be, one should always give it a try. There maybe a lot of people with similar ideas but you just could be the first person to try it. :)