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Many superconductor elevation stunts like it have been around Youtube for a while. However; this is being portrayed as a novel idea, which it is not, and a similar hoverboard has 0% chance of being practical considering superconduction is a major ingredient in the recipe. Nevertheless, great PR video!

What about a superconducting magnet being used to suspend a top, both in a vacuum and not?

Similar to this - which is smooth shell/continuous cross section but sadly very short in duration.

Wowee. Right up my alley.

I looked up this design on the wikitube. It's a design called the bitter magnet, named for its inventor (1933), Francis Bitter:

The strongest continuous magnetic fields on Earth have been produced by Bitter magnets. As of 2011 the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, houses the world's strongest resistive magnet. This system has a maximum field strength of 36.2 teslas and consists of hundreds of separate Bitter plates. The system consumes 19.6 megawatts of electric power and requires about 139 litres of water pumped through it per second for cooling.[2]. This magnet is mainly used for material science experimentation. For similarly designed examples of bitter coils see the external links below. The strongest continuous manmade magnetic field, 45 T, was produced by a device consisting of a Bitter magnet inside a superconducting magnet.[1]

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)

>> ^Boise_Lib:

>> ^juliovega914:
Alright, this is unbelievably fucking cool.
You guys might (not) remember the Meissner effect I posted earlier (http://videosift.com/video/The-Meissner-Effect-Awsome-physics) This is exactly the same effect.
The fundamental difference is that the superconductor in my vid is thicker than in this case. In this case, a 1 micron YBCO layer is deposited onto a sapphire wafer (probably through physical vapor deposition [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a9Slv1T1UM, go to 3:15 if you want to skip to PVD])
When you deposit a thin film with PVD you will inevitably form small imperfections at the grain boundaries in the film, usually only nanometers wide. When brought down below the superconductive transition temperature (IE, liquid nitrogen temp), the magnetic field lines are able to penetrate these grain boundaries in discrete quantities (unlike the thicker superconductor) forming what they seem to be calling "quantum tubes". The superconductor pins the field lines into these quantum sized tubes, and the force required to distort the field lines is greater than the weight of the superconductor.
Read this for a bit more: http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/The_physics.html, but it doesn't seem terribly well translated, and it cant seem to decide how layman's terms it wants to be.

I didn't think that PVD would form YBCO.
I could easily be wrong though--my knowledge is out of date.
Great video about the Meissner Effect.


Physical vapor deposition (evaporation) pretty much works with any material that can be evaporated in a vaccuum without decomposing. Metals, semi-metals, and many ceramics and metal-oxides are candidates.

>> ^juliovega914:

Alright, this is unbelievably fucking cool.
You guys might (not) remember the Meissner effect I posted earlier (http://videosift.com/video/The-Meissner-Effect-Awsome-physics) This is exactly the same effect.
The fundamental difference is that the superconductor in my vid is thicker than in this case. In this case, a 1 micron YBCO layer is deposited onto a sapphire wafer (probably through physical vapor deposition [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a9Slv1T1UM, go to 3:15 if you want to skip to PVD])
When you deposit a thin film with PVD you will inevitably form small imperfections at the grain boundaries in the film, usually only nanometers wide. When brought down below the superconductive transition temperature (IE, liquid nitrogen temp), the magnetic field lines are able to penetrate these grain boundaries in discrete quantities (unlike the thicker superconductor) forming what they seem to be calling "quantum tubes". The superconductor pins the field lines into these quantum sized tubes, and the force required to distort the field lines is greater than the weight of the superconductor.
Read this for a bit more: http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/The_physics.html, but it doesn't seem terribly well translated, and it cant seem to decide how layman's terms it wants to be.


I didn't think that PVD would form YBCO.
I could easily be wrong though--my knowledge is out of date.

Great video about the Meissner Effect.

Alright, this is unbelievably fucking cool.

You guys might (not) remember the Meissner effect I posted earlier (http://videosift.com/video/The-Meissner-Effect-Awsome-physics) This is exactly the same effect.

The fundamental difference is that the superconductor in my vid is thicker than in this case. In this case, a 1 micron YBCO layer is deposited onto a sapphire wafer (probably through physical vapor deposition [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a9Slv1T1UM, go to 3:15 if you want to skip to PVD])

When you deposit a thin film with PVD you will inevitably form small imperfections at the grain boundaries in the film, usually only nanometers wide. When brought down below the superconductive transition temperature (IE, liquid nitrogen temp), the magnetic field lines are able to penetrate these grain boundaries in discrete quantities (unlike the thicker superconductor) forming what they seem to be calling "quantum tubes". The superconductor pins the field lines into these quantum sized tubes, and the force required to distort the field lines is greater than the weight of the superconductor.

Read this for a bit more: http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/The_physics.html, but it doesn't seem terribly well translated, and it cant seem to decide how layman's terms it wants to be.

The Meissner effect is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state. Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered the phenomenon in 1933 by measuring the magnetic field distribution outside superconducting tin and lead samples.[1] The samples, in the presence of an applied magnetic field, were cooled below what is called their superconducting transition temperature. Below the transition temperature the samples canceled nearly all magnetic fields inside. They detected this effect only indirectly; because the magnetic flux is conserved by a superconductor, when the interior field decreased the exterior field increased. The experiment demonstrated for the first time that superconductors were more than just perfect conductors and provided a uniquely defining property of the superconducting state.
-wikipedia

Technically everything is magnetic due to the main force sharing electricity (electromagnetism; yes, if Magneto was much more intelligent he would own [pwn] everything). If you were in a high enough magnetic field you'd die as nerve conduction might "flip" or go weird directions. It's be one hell of a way to go and you'd have to be by something like the Sun to do it. Lastly, remember that as Oxygen becomes cooler it becomes superconducting.

Of course the other particles forced into the magnetic loops will kill you outright FAR before the magnetism.

/Seriously, someone needs to tell him white fro's are out, man. I keep thinking it's Shepard Book.

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."

For those interested in the physics behind this this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

In conductors, electric currents are generated whenever there is a changing magnetic field. These currents generate their own magnetic field, which opposes the magnetic field which generates them. In this example, the magnet once dropped generates a current in the aluminum because as the magnet gets closer, the field gets stronger at the position of the aluminum. This generates a current, which creates its own magnetic field, acting on the magnet, and slowing it down.

Here's where it starts getting really interesting. The generated magnetic field will be notably weaker than the field of the dropped magnet, because the current is subject to electrical resistance. But what if we used a superconducting material, where there is zero electrical resistance, the two magnetic fields should equal eachother, right?

Check out this vid: http://videosift.com/video/The-Meissner-Effect-Awsome-physics

This is called the Meissner effect. This video shows an experiment of a strong magnet being put on top of a YBCO superconductor. All superconductors need to have their temperature dropped dramatically in order to to hit the superconducting threshhold known as a transition temperature. Typical transition temperatures are below 10 kelvin. YBCO is a unique material known as a high temperature superconductor, meaning that it can be cooled to its transition temperature with liquid nitrogen (about 70 kelvin).

Well, I see we've all already piled on the hate train, but..
I've experienced exactly what they're talking about with various anime shows. When I first watched FLCL I felt genuinely depressed for about two weeks when the show was over. Likable characters combined with seeing a young kid with friends having an adventureful life made me acutely aware of the things missing in my geek life.

I just saw Avatar this past week. It was a good movie; there were only three things that struck me as not being sensible while I was watching it(compare this to Terminator Salvation, which I also saw this past week. It had at least 10 things that jumped out at me as either plot holes or just nonsense). Avatar gets away with things that wouldn't work in movies set on Earth because being set in a foreign planetary system gives them access to phenomena like a unique evolutionary history or the presence of the superconducting mineral as explanations for aspects of the plot.

While I did not feel depressed after seeing Avatar, I did experience a sensation similar to missing someone for a minute or two after leaving the theater. A relatively believable story, likable characters, a female lead with sex appeal, exotic environment, the fact that I strongly want to see travel to other stars happen within my lifetime, the fact that I'm single, and the fact that the movie was over two and a half hours long; I guess all that could have added up to create the sensation I felt.

As an MR researcher, the 'Why don't you just turn off the magnet' complex is a safety issue we battle everyday. It's easy to make mistakes , even if properly trained, because you can't see the magnetic field, and by the time you feel it, it's often too late. Almost every MR researcher I know has had their credit cards wiped (at least once) by forgetting their wallet in their pockets when they go grab something from the MR suite. This case is more serious but luckily it looks as though no one was injured.

To clear things up, clinical MRI's use Superconducting Electromagnets. After installation, the current is slowly ramped up until the desired field strength is reached but they *DO NOT* require additional power to keep them running. There is NO power cord for the magnet and the current will run FOREVER so long as the coil is kept cool enough to remain superconducting (usually using liquid helium as mentioned previously).

An enormous amount of energy is released when a magnet "Quenches" i.e. heats up and becomes non-superconducting. Once the coil has non-zero resistance a ton of heat is generated, the liquid helium boils off, and the coil can expand causing permanent damage to the magnet. Furthermore, when the helium gas boils off it can displace all the oxygen in the room creating another hazard: asphyxiation.

While most systems have a "Quench" button which has been engineered to be as friendly as possible to the magnet, it is a costly and risky maneuver which is reserved for cases when human life is in danger i.e. someone walks in with a non-MRI safe gurney which pins someone to the magnet... It has happened.

The point is, this is not a magnetic field that can switched off easily/cheaply and turned back on quickly/cheaply!!

As for metal implants, it is important to remember not all metals are magnetic, and most implants are made of MRI Safe materials i.e. won't rip out of your skin in the presence of a strong magnetic field. However, most are not "MRI Compatible" meaning they will cause image artifacts in a small area around their location.

MRI is safe, working with humans around an MRI is the dangerous part.

This is from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_Resonance_Imaging
The magnetic field and the associated risk of missile-effect accidents remains a permanent hazard — as superconductive MRI magnets retain their magnetic field, even in the event of a power outage.



Looks like it doesn't turn off even when turned off.