Step into an elevator, and you’re headed up or down, right? Not necessarily. A new elevator called MULTI can also travel sideways! It was recently built inside a 74-story tower in Germany.
Most elevator cars hang on cables that carry them up and down. MULTI doesn’t use cables at all. Its cars are lined with strong magnets. Other magnets line the elevator shafts. Some of these magnets attract the ones on the cars. Others repel them, or push them away.
A computer system sends pulses of electricity through the magnets to turn them on and off. Activating them in different patterns moves cars up, down, or side to side.
The company that built MULTI hopes the elevator will help people move quickly through crowded buildings—even ones constructed in unusual shapes!