This is our final Maglev train design. We had to carry this cup of weights to the other side of the track safe and efficiently. In this picture you will see my bottom the car and the train track.

The improvements we made with our train were to put two strip magnets on the bottom instead of one. We put two on the bottom to make it more powerful so it can carry more weights.

Our final design was to two strip magnets on top of each other there are two of magnets on each side that doubled. For the bottom of the car, we put two strip magnets on each side. The spaces of the bottom of the car and the spaces of the track had to be lined up. I think it was successful because we doubled the magnets on the track. I also think it was successful because we lined up the spaces perfectly in place.

The things I learned doing this project was “The Engineering Design Process” (EDP). I also learned about how Maglev trains work. I also learned  about working with a group when I was working with my group. It was very tricky, we all had to listen to each other’s ideas. it was very fun.

Today we finally got our maglev train to levitate and travel down the track. When we first started working, we did not know what to do and it was really hard. Then we repositioned our magnet and it worked. The type of magnets we used were all strip magnets. On the track we had two strip magnets on each side of the track with its south pole facing up. We also had two strip magnets on each side of the bottom of the train with the south poles facing down.

Today, some things failed. We positioned our magnets wrong so the spaces were not lined up. We learned that the magnets need to be in a specific position for it to work. The changes that we made when we failed were we lined up the empty spaces and then it worked.

Our goal for the next design session is to carry weights in a cup on the train. I am excited for this and I am also excited to see what will happen.

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A maglev train is a train made out of magnets. The magnets on the train tracks do not attract with the train. They repel, which makes the train levitate. My group’s idea was to put three strip magnets on the track and five disk magnets on the bottom of the train.

My groups idea did not work so we tried many more things that did not work. We went back to our original idea. We still cannot figure out why this idea did not work so my partners said that maybe we should take away the middle magnet but that did not work. Also, we still do not know why our designs did not work but we are going to figure it out.

My experience working with the group was good. There were some disagreements that did happen but other than that our group worked together really well and we all listened to each other’s ideas. Soon we will build it right together.