Magnetic levitation trains—a staple of my childhood Popular Science reading—have not only become reality, they’re setting new speed records. Japan’s newest “bullet train” line, from Tokyo to Nagoya, is testing its first stretches, and hit a new train-speed record of 375 mph the other day, near Mount Fuji.
Magnetic levitation trains float just above the rail, using electro-magnetic force to repel the train (remember how two magnets stick together one way, but if you turn one of them around, it “pushes” the other away?). A number of them are already in service elsewhere, including a 19-mile, 268 mph line that connects Shanghai to its airport.
