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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenz%27s_law

Tags for this video have been changed from 'electro magnet, magnet, strong magnet, science, iron, emf' to 'electro magnet, magnet, strong magnet, science, iron, emf, lenzs law' - edited by rottenseed

Well... Their diagram is a little funny. I think you could do it if the car or track was a superconductor, but I don't see the reason to make both superconducting.

Superconductors levitate by generating an equal and opposite magnetic field outside the superconductor to expel the magnetic flux inside (think Lenz's Law). The Meissner Effect is naively perfect diamagnetism.

I look at this and think it is totally doable. If you want I can send the video to guy I know that studies superconductors. I think most physicists would probably say that you could make this.

>> ^dannym3141:

Pretty sure that's possible, i don't care to speculate how in an engineering fashion, but sure, you can get them to follow a track and even suspend them upside down if you like, i don't how well they can stick to the track during fast turns, perhaps you'd need to tilt the surface gradually.
I assume it'd be easier to cool the track rather than the cars, otherwise you're gonna have to wire up the cars to deliver coolant which would destroy the point. The idea of nitrogen gas coming out of the tiny cars for the whole video is a bit of a suggestion it's not real. That's assuming he was putting nitrogen in the car in that weird pipe.
Shit, they do stuff similar to this with trains full of people in some places. Probably a bit of a tamer ride because of the much higher masses involved.
(I study physics, but maybe someone knows more than me about the current progress on all that)

>> ^Morganth:

The magnet's aren't attracted to the copper pipe? Lenz's law, you crazy man.


does copper equal iron, nickel, or cobalt?

The magnet's aren't attracted to the copper pipe? Lenz's law, you crazy man.

This is a really neat effect. Thanks @juliovega914 for some more info on the physics.

As aluminum isn't magnetic, in and of itself, the idea of using a magnet with aluminum can seem illogical. If it weren't for the eddy currents and Lenz's law it would make no sense.

I found a great real-world explanation of this same effect:

"A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses an enormous and extremely strong magnet to study a patient's body. The magnet, which has its north pole at the patient's head and its south pole at the patient's feet, is actually a coil of superconducting wire through which electric charges flow.

Aluminum isn't normally magnetic, but as you carry a large aluminum tray toward the magnet, you find that the magnet repels the aluminum. Once again, Lenz's law. The magnet induces a magnetic field in the moving aluminum tray to oppose its own, effectively pushing it away.

You eventually manage to get the aluminum tray up to the magnet. As long as the tray doesn't move, it experiences no magnetic forces. But when you drop it, it falls past the magnet remarkably slowly. What slows down its fall?
That trickster, Lenz. When the tray is stationary, the magnetic field of the magnet is not changing, but as soon as it moves, the field begins changing and an opposing field is induced."