Image Source: The Business Insider
Hyperloop is a theory proposed by Elon Musk in 2012, and who later “produced a 57-page white paper that outlined his technical thinking for how this system would work.” According to Alex Davies at Wired. The CEO and founder of Tesla and Space X suggested that the new form of transportation would allow people to travel from one place to another at speed twice faster than the one achieved through air and earth.
The Hyperloop will utilize electric propulsion and magnetic levitation to travel in big vacuum pumps, which will allow reaching incredible speeds, as it will get rid of the two components that affect the speed of current methods of transportation, friction, and air resistance. According to Steve Ranger, a hyperloop holds the same idea as an air hockey table.
Ranger says that “Musk outlined his vision of what Hyperloop would look like in his Hyperloop Alpha paper. He set out the case for a service running between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which would be cheaper and faster than a proposed high-speed rail link.” And he estimated that people who would travel this route could get from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes, rather than the 8 hours it currently takes through busses and trains.
Investors have backed the hyperloop idea. According to The New York Times, “Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is one of several in the United States, Canada and other countries developing hyperloop technology.” They have begun constructing and installing the tubes that will allow hyperloop one to travel through the desert of California as an initial test of many more, before finally seeing it in full run.
Image Source: ElecTreck
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/technology/hyperloop-virgin-vacuum-tubes.html
The science behind these Hyperloops are quite amazing. It is incredible that someone could come up with the vacuum sealed tubes to reduce friction and allow such a quick transportation time. I can only imagine how much the world will change with this type of technology in our lives. It seems as though they are working fast and this will be the newest and best form of transportation not too far in the future.