How Japan's Maglev Train Works

Honored to have my name in the credits! Thanks for letting me help on this one.

There is something almost magic about high-speed trains. You enter in one city, the train flies through the landscape at 300km/h yet it's completely quiet in the cabin, and suddenly you are in a different city.

As an electrical engineer, I can confidently say that magnets and electromagnetism are magic. I know how they work, I'm not gonna tell you.

Tom Scott made a video on this a while back, he actually rode on the train - it’s incredibly quiet (once the wheels fold up)

At 11:38 the train is so fast that the rolling shutter of the camera warps the windows into diagonals.

One of the best things about "normal" high speed rail is that it's conceptually pretty straightforward. Just crank the voltage and make sure the rails are very straight.

Fun fact about the cost: The $13.7b construction cost was actually entirely paid for by JR Tokai on their own without any government grant, because 1)it shows how confident JR Tokai is to the technology and the project, 2) they don’t want to deal with the government red tape (locally and centrally) that slows the project involving government grant and 3) they plan to shut down Tokaido Shinkansen for a three year overhaul once Chuo Shinkansen opens so they want to complete it as soon as they can

I love how Japan is probably going to get maglev trains before the US gets any high-speed rail at all. Our priorities are really messed up over here.

Differences between this and hyperloop: -is actualy realisable -is actualy archievable -The guy who made it is actualy considerable sane.

nstead of using regular conductive magnets that only float 8mm, we have put into practical use an ultra-electric linear motor car that floats 10cm. Because it floats 10cm, there is less shaking and vibration even when traveling at high speeds of 603km/h, making it more comfortable than the Shinkansen. In addition, noise prevention is also necessary because of the large impact when traveling. The train must run through a tunnel, which has delayed construction. 90% of the total length is tunnel, so there is an issue that construction is delayed due to the problem of running out of water when a tunnel is built.

i love that you take the time to go into the details on how the coils work. so many other channels would just say, superconduction magnets and thats it. but you even go into the detail to explain how the cooling works. and then you manage to explain it in a simple and good to understand way. :D

I wanna go from Cork to Belfast in 50mins instead of 6 hours. If they get the planning permissions in now I'm confident we could get this done by the year 2080.

I've always been interested in the maglev, this is one of the best videos on the science and engineering I've seen

My understanding is that yes, MagLev has a far higher startup cost, but a far lower operational cost due to reduced maintenance from the lack of friction.

I did my high school senior research paper on maglev trains in 2001… it’s wild that little has changed since then. Or, at least, they haven’t really been implemented.

Japan has always been the place to test future technologies

just went to japan and took a trip from tokyo to mt fiji and on the way there our tour guided pointed out this old looking bridge that we were driving under. it would not have suspected one of the fastest trains is being tested right above us!

This is why the world admires Japan.

This video has all the details I wished tom scott's had and more, thanks! The pacing might be a little fast for a layperson to follow comfortably, but it was honestly refreshing to see

Really good video, as always! I love your explanations and the awesome animations and graphs make everything really understandable. As a great addition I can highly recommend the video from Tom Scott, he actually rode the train and shows footage how it moves on the test track :D