Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi. The project which I am doing consists of building a maglev train and making it move. Building a maglev train seems simple, but the trouble I am having is with making the train move. I was thinking whether an lectromagnet would be a good idea, and I also heard there were circuits I can build, but I do not know how. Please if you have any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. My second problem is as follows; this year the theme at our school is measuring something and as such I was wondering what kind of variables I can measure with the aforementioned project. I was wondering whther measuring speed would be a good idea, but what variation would make to the project to change around the variables. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Hello
This is a very interesting project to work on. After doing some reasearch, I found I very helpful website which I hope advances your understanding on the Maglev trains. It starts of by saying that the maglev train is propelled by a linear induction motor. Hope this helps! Good luck!

http://www.o-keating.com/hsr/maglev.htm

It's fairly easy to get something to hover using magnets and an appropriate surface.

Getting it to move is trickier. You will almost certainly need to build an electromagnet and figure out a way to orient it so that the forces push both up and forward, not just up.