Quantum Levitation

The123king · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 2:56 pm

[youtube]Ws6AAhTw7RA[/youtube]

Researchers at the school of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University have created a track around which a superconductor can float, thanks to the phenomenon of “quantum levitation“.

This levitation effect is explained by the Meissner effect, which describes how, when a material makes the transition from its normal to its superconducting state, it actively excludes magnetic fields from its interior, leaving only a thin layer on its surface.

When a material is in its superconducting state — which involves very low temperatures — it is strongly diamagnetic. This means that when a magnetic field is externally applied, it will create an equally opposing magnetic field, locking it in place.

A material called yttrium barium copper oxide can be turned into a superconductor by exposure to liquid nitrogen — which makes it one of the highest-temperature superconductors.

In the video it appears that a puck of yttrium barium copper oxide cooled by liquid nitrogen is repelling the magnets embedded on the handheld device. It also shows that the angle of the magnet can be locked in a magnetic field. Later in the video the puck can be seen to zoom round a circular track of magnets, in the same way that Maglev high-speed trains do.

Riptide · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 3:02 pm

That.... is amazing.

Snake1235 · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 4:14 pm

...Whoa.

Rayseima · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 4:20 pm

I want one of those...

Scar · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 7:41 pm

SCIENCE!

Kikori · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 7:50 pm

New goal in life: Learn to levitate, too.

Holy hell. o_o

Market Man6 · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 8:29 pm

the superconductor creates an equally opposing magnetic field....
now what happens if you had a positive magnet on the top and a negative one on the bottom?

Riptide · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 8:43 pm

Market Man6 wrote:

the superconductor creates an equally opposing magnetic field....
now what happens if you had a positive magnet on the top and a negative one on the bottom?

I'd assume the same thing. He basically did that when he flipped the glass table upside-down.

Also, I've been thinking of ways for this to apply in real life, but I can't think of anything that doesn't sound completely ridiculous.

Macho Nacho · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 8:44 pm

I see a great practical joke potential here...

Market Man6 · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 9:03 pm

Riptide wrote:

Market Man6 wrote:

the superconductor creates an equally opposing magnetic field....
now what happens if you had a positive magnet on the top and a negative one on the bottom?

I'd assume the same thing. He basically did that when he flipped the glass table upside-down.

Also, I've been thinking of ways for this to apply in real life, but I can't think of anything that doesn't sound completely ridiculous.

i believe that table to have 2 rows of similarly charged magnets. these two rows create two separate, but parallel, similarly charged fields. and the superconductor is forced to center itself in the middle of the two fields. comparing this 'track' to the previous example of the single magnet where the superconductor was able to rotate on the single axis, this 'track' forces the superconductor to have free range between the two fields. this enables it to glide around the track rather than fixed around one point.

if i understand correctly, the superconductor is creating its own magnetic field around itself that will oppose the magnets field. and make it 'lock'.
but if you were to introduce 2 magnets that were oppositely charged. how would the superconductor react to this?

Landerpurex · **Posted:** October 19th, 2011, 10:32 pm

This is pretty amazing. Interested to see the applications of this.

Riptide · **Posted:** October 20th, 2011, 5:24 am

Market Man6 wrote:

but if you were to introduce 2 magnets that were oppositely charged. how would the superconductor react to this?

Go completely out of wack, I'd assume.

Znath · **Posted:** October 22nd, 2011, 2:11 pm

Well at the moment it's a cool science trick, but I wouldn't expect much of a use for it for a while.

One use I've heard of for stuff like this is total frictionless bearings.
This would work by basically having the shaft covered in high power magnets at one point.
And then the superconductors on the outside. Something like this would mean that
you could have emergency generators that run even longer without nearly as much friction.

I think the weirder part is that it maintains distance and angle perfectly.

Dark Paladin · **Posted:** October 22nd, 2011, 2:34 pm

This is not very new, but a good video to promote it I guess.

It is the first time I've seen it on a track, the only think keeping it slow is the air drag.

Znath · **Posted:** October 24th, 2011, 11:59 am

It would also be interesting if you could have this work on satellites also.
The hard part would be keeping the thing cool.

Jeroen · **Posted:** October 24th, 2011, 2:53 pm

Znath wrote:

It would also be interesting if you could have this work on satellites also.
The hard part would be keeping the thing cool.

Well, yeah; Keeping it cool is basically all there is to this

Quantum Levitation

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