Hyperloop Will Hype Become Reality The world may be about to get a whole new form of transportation called the Hyperloop It would travel at more than 700 miles 1,127 kilometers per hour and use solar power Tubes would be mounted above ground on pylons or supports A capsule-shaped pod would zip through the tubes like an air hockey puck The Hyperloop system could also be built below ground or underwater It could carry passengers or cargo Friction and air resistance are two forces that can slow down any vehicle The Hyperloop pods would avoid friction with the tubes by floating on an extremely thin layer of air To lower air resistance machines on the outside of the pods would transfer air from in front of the pods to behind them tube pod 6
STEAM Fast Fact Engineers working on the Hyperloop want to eliminate as much friction and air resistance from the system as possible Look at these pictures Which ones are opposites and how do they relate to speed 7
Since California is a likely location for the Hyperloop people are concerned about what would happen to it in an earthquake California sits on top of a fault line where two slabs of the Earth’s crust meet When stress causes the slabs to slip earthquakes take place Engineers would need to design the Hyperloop pylons to withstand violent shaking California’s San Andreas fault site of the 1906 earthquake in San Franciso is about 800 miles 1,287 kilometers long running west of San Francisco and east of Los Angeles San Andreas fault 8
STEAM Profile Elon Musk a transportation entrepreneur first proposed the idea of the Hyperloop in 2013 He said it would be both faster and cheaper than the high-speed train the state of California was planning Using an approach called crowdsourcing Musk invited anyone to contribute ideas and expertise to make the Hyperloop a reality Respected engineers and business leaders have done just that Different companies working on the Hyperloop have their own variations of the basic concept Elon Musk A group of architecture students from the University of California at Los Angeles have focused on the artistic and human aspects of the Hyperloop They realized that traveling in a pod with no windows at a high speed could be scary To help passengers relax the students designed artistic scenes including forests and starry skies that would be projected onto the walls of the pods The students also built models of possible Hyperloop station designs ranging from tall and grand to low and circular 9
