Anti-gravity cars

[whackdaddy]

Wood it eva b possible 2 create an anti-gravity car? wood it work on electro-magnets or is that really dumb?

[j2buttonsw]

i fink u cud if u hd metle rdz and elecro-mgntz in da ca

[wildwood]

It would certainly be possible but not practical with cars because they don't stick to one general route. How would you park it on the side of the road, or put it in your garage?
I distinctly remember seeing a documentary a few years ago where a train 'floats' over the rails using electro-magnetic guides rather than wheels in Japan. With no friction it is supposed to be safer so greater motion speed is possible.

[xyzzyplugh]

Yeah, how come yew can spel big wurds effectively bit not likl ones? The answer Dan B may lay in superconduction and magnets or else Tommyknockers. Failing that, what about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

[gazzawazza]

I remember being asked a question a few years ago, "What can a Formula 1 car do that a normal car can't?"

The obvious answer was, of course, go really really fast. However the point of the question was to tell you that due to the shape of the F1 cars (ie they're designed to have fantastic road-holding capabilies) they could actually drive upside-down on the ceiling of a tunnel if they could drive smoothly into that position after reaching the speed necessary to create the required downdraught, a bit like the opposite of a wing, instead of creating lift, the shape creates downforce.

The problem was finding a tunnel long enough and smooth enough to allow this to be done to prove it but they know the downforce created and they know it's powerful enough to hold the car on the roof.

[rekstout]

The odds are against it - if it were ever technologically possible to do this then the practicality of using a car which has no road-holding is low.

The cars we use now rely on friction to ensure we stay on the correct course (when we turn a corner, for example). If we had a car that floated using some sort of anti-gravity gizmo or mag-lev technology then we would have little control over lateral movement. I know we could move in one dimension using pulsed coils (like a rail gun) but the concept only really works if we are on rails to ensure we follow the correct route.

The alternative would be to have litte thrusters all around our cars which would be impractical and downright dangerous for passing pedestrians! Imaging a motorway full of hovercraft and think about whether it would work - I'm driven one of those little hovercraft and they are bl**dy difficult to keep on course.

[sft42]

Yes of course it is...it exists now....it's called a aeroplane..i mean what is that if it's not a mode of transport that defies gravity?

[DavidUK]

Flying and levitation using magnets are not the same as anti-gravity. Anti-gravity means that the gravitational pull is somehow inactivated and not just opposed by other forces. And I suspect that it will be possible one day. Finally, dan, always remember the old saying: "jooj iwio yuuokds chitt und aa hhh hahaha", if u c wot i mene.

[Squirrel]

In theory it should require no actual energy to float in mid air - after all no work is being done. A possible solution to the ground friction problem could be to make the vehicle "lighter" by fitting inside it, or above it, a very strong container filled with almost nothing at all. That is to say, it will be less attracted to the ground than the air around it, try to float upwards and hence lift whatever it is attached to, like a hot air balloon. But the hot air balloon technology should be improved with such materials as diamond casing to contain a near-vacuum. I don't see any practical way to use the Earth's magnetic field to raise objects off the ground because the magnetic flux density at ground level is just 50 microteslas (�T). Alternatively, and this is just some wild guess, if it was ever discovered that, say, neutrons do not obey the laws of gravity, and some sort of vehicle was made almost entirely out of them...it would probably be radioactive...but you see what I mean... Alternatively, solar power, if made extremely efficient, could be used to provide conventional thrust (such as propellers) or to maybe produce enough current to lift small objects using the equation F = BIl, where F = force, B = magnetic flux density, I = current and l = length of conductor perpendicular to the field. It could take millions of metres of high-current cable to achieve a decent upward force, though.