This Superconducting Quantum Levitation Möbius Strip Race Track Will Blow Your Mind

Jessica Miley

Students at the Ithaca College’s Low-Temperature Physics Lab have out-performed Elon Musk and created a super cool quantum levitation Möbius strip race track. Musk can keep his Hyperloop, we want to scale up this very cool looking transport prototype.

A Möbius strip is formed when you take a strip and twist it into a continuous loop. Students at Ithaca College added three extra turns to their track making a formidable 3π Möbius strip. They then covered both sides with magnets creating a track where a liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductor is able to levitate both above and beneath it as it raced around the bends.

Professor Matthew C. Sullivan is the lab leader, inspiring students to conduct a range of projects that deal with transport and levitation.

Musk announced the idea of the Hyperloop in 2013 and is now in testing mode. The Hyperloop, once developed, has the potential to carry both human and cargo loads at top speeds of 620 miles/hour. It works by utilizing a linear electric motor to accelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube.

The first real life successful testing of the Hyperloop was just completed in the Nevada desert. An underground tunnel containing a testing unit was moved across the desert at 70 miles per hour. While there is a way to go before the hoped speeds are reached, this testing milestone puts Musk's vision one step closer to reality.