• Question: Do you know much about what's coming in the future? Gravity defying cars? Robots? Neon extra speed sports cars?

    Asked by Jaitanium_Rouse to Steven, Sarah, Connor on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Wow, they all sound amazing! I don’t know much about any of those – I know people are definitely working on creating robots (some human-like androids, and others designed to be different from humans so they’re better at other things).

      Gravity defying cars are a trickier one. We already have gravity-defying trains, though – the MagLev trains in Japan use ‘magnetic levitation’ to float above the tracks. The tracks are magnetic, and the bottom of the train is lined with a special material called a superconductor which needs to be cooled to -200C to keep the train floating! If we manage to make ones that still float when they’re warm, we could have gravity defying trains!

      As for neon extra speed sports cars, I’ve no idea, but if anyone ever makes them, I really want a go in one!

Comments

  • Photo: Jaitanium_Rouse

    Jaitanium_Rouse commented on :

    thanks. Could we use robots for construction?

    • Photo: Steven

      Steven commented on :

      That’s a great idea – it would be great to get robots to do the heavy lifting, and stop people from getting injured on construction sites.

      Robots are already used for some types of assembly jobs, like in factories making cars, but I don’t think anyone’s made one for construction yet. Most robots aren’t strong enough. They’re made of lightweight metals and plastics not strong enough to carry heavy loads. Also, there’s quite a lot of skill in lifting heavy weights without hurting yourself, so people would need to program the robots very carefully.

      In the future, though, I think having robots to do construction is a brilliant idea and I hope we have construction robots before too long!