Period 6 Group 1-- Kevin, Kevin, Elise

From the initial research, it has quickly become apparent that Hovercars are viable vehicles for the future.

Already, Hovercars have been on the market, although such hovercars are primarily all-terrain vehicles (ground and water), such as this one:
The DONAR Hovercraft shown is a recreational craft, meaning it is open to civilians to buy. Other Hovercrafts from the same company (ABS) are used for military/ industrial purposes, and are faster and more powerful, but less comfortable. Obviously, hovercrafts as shown here are viable, seeing as they have already been made. However, they are unlikely to replace the road vehicles of today as they are wind powered, indicating that they need huge quantities of thrust to stay hovering in the air, not to mention the two giant turbines in the back to provide the energy for forward motion. As a result, such wind-powered hovercrafts are only useful as all-terrain vehicles, as they can drive on any surface with equal ease, but cars on the roads remain easier on the environment.

So instead, we looked at alternatives to wind power: magnets. The recurring image of UFOs and the hovercars silently upping and flying away in works of science fiction will most likely be accomplished through magnets. Unlike wind, there haven't been many magnetic hovercars available to the public at an affordable price (by not many I mean none). However, there have been numerous illustrations of what magnetic hovercrafts can do. Take for example, this video:

I will admit, the video requires quite a bit of knowledge about magnets to fully understand. Basically the premise is this: the most important piece of the craft is the metal "superconductor," which has millions and millions of strong magnetic poles. However, they all point in different directions, so they cancel each other out, allowing charges to pass freely through the conductor. However, when the superconductor is cooled to a low enough temperature, its poles will align just so and it will become magnetic in a highly unusual way so it is "locked" in place.


If that wasn't a clear enough then here's someone who is far more qualified than I am explaining the ins and outs of magnets:

















Also, here's a pretty cool video I found that uses the liquid nitrogen to cool superconductors in order to race cars. Note that the cars can travel vertically: the force that locks them in place is actually stronger than gravity! A full size car could theoretically scale a building by going up the side of it!
















To round out magnetic hovercars, here's the greatest fact of all: car manufacturers are already coming up with prototype hovercars. Volkswagen has even come out with an infomercial in China to promote their hovercar! Here it is (in Chinese):

Powered by an electromagnet, this hovercar has huge potential. It is capable of things that many of the newer cars have, such as automatic braking in accident situations and built-in GPS, yet adds so much to them. The vehicle has a display on the windshield so as to not distract the driver from the road. Furthermore, the car uses a more intuitive joystick to drive instead of a wheel with gas and brakes. In addition to all this, the hovercraft can turn truly on a dime for superior maneuverability and easier parking. Volkswagen very well may have made the car of the future.

However, there are several common issues with magnetism. One issue is that it is incredibly difficult for magnets to climb higher above the ground, as when the distance between the magnet and the ground doubles, the force required to keep the magnet levitating increases by two squared, or four-fold. Therefore, magnetic hovercars would not solve traffic problems by flying over them. Also, keeping something very cold in the liquid nitrogen examples is extremely pricey (and quite dangerous), as the container that holds the liquid nitrogen cannot degrade over time and one would have to somehow obtain large quantities of liquid nitrogen.

Finally, there is my favorite possibility for levitating a hovercar: sound. Yes, that's right. That thing that comes out of your mouth when you speak. Sound.

The scientists at Argonne national laboratory have successfully levitated spheres of liquid in the air with sound. The levitation works because sound is a compression wave, where particles compress tightly, followed by periods of rarefaction, where they spread out a bit, much like how a spring elongates after it has been compressed. To levitate an object, the scientists played two sounds so that the periods of compression in one matched with the periods of rarefaction in the other, and vice-versa, as shown by the two green waves aligning on the machine in the video. The corresponding periods of rarefaction and compression cancel each other out, so that there is a uniform force applied across the levitated object. This field of forces is actually so delicate that it can preserve the form of tiny droplets of liquid, such as water. Sound is the most recent development, occurring only this year, so there haven't been any hovercraft designs in the works that use sound to levitate objects.