Physics Buzz

A few months ago, Elon Musk famously launched his own car into space on top of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. It was an unprecedented stunt, and one that's unlikely ever to be repeated, but last week the world saw another Tesla launched skyward . . . this one didn't go nearly as well.

Elon Musk, billionaire founder of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, is in the news again and this time his innovative mind must have been working overtime. He introduced his concept of the Hyperloop this week, a pneumatic-like chamber that he envisions could transport humans between LA and San Francisco in about 30 minutes.   While others have certainly suggested similar ideas, both in sci-fi stories and in sci-fact forums, Musk’s announcement, if anything, gives the public a slight insight into how a corner of his brain functions.

Tesla coils are the brain child of the early 20th century scientist Nikola Tesla—a man with roughly 300 patents to his name ranging from arc lamps to a helicopter prototype. Although not all of Tesla's ambitious plans came to fruition, his legacy lives on as electricity enthusiasts are still hard at work building enormous Tesla coils. One group is actively seeking funding to build the world's largest pair of Tesla coils capable of producing arcs around 100 yards long. The proposed 10-story Tesla Coils would be the largest ever built. Image Courtesy Lightning on Demand.