When Elon Musk, the PayPal billionaire, announced his plans for a near-supersonic transport system of passenger capsules levitating inside tubes it sounded like science fiction. Now the concept is to get its first working test track.

A full-scale version of the Hyperloop concept is to be built in central California next year, using magnets and fans to push passenger pods through five miles of depressurized tubes at speeds of up to 200 mph.

One remaining problem is how to best to build a national network of tubes crisscrossing the US using as many straight lines as possible and reducing the number of potentially nausea-inducing bends.

Vocabulary:

Supersonic, levitate, crisscross, nausea-inducing