| Author | Message | ||
     Sara Blumenstein |
I have been looking for very strong magnets and was wondering if you can put something around the floating magnet like a plastic toy or the like and still get it to float with the magnet inside? Possible? Thanks in advance. Just found your site and really like the stuff. Can't wait to try some. | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
The floating magnet is a little less than a millimeter from the diamagnetic plates. That does not leave a lot of room for putting a plastic toy around it. Paper or lightweight plastic film can be attached to the magnet's sides, however, without any ill effect, if the weight is kept down. Paper or plastic film can be placed on the top of some pyrolytic graphite floating on a magnet. Again, you have to be careful not to make it too heavy. But a cutout of a surfer or a sailboat works great. | ||
| aspieman |
I am a professional magician looking for an extension to my act. If money was no object would it be possible to build a structure in which a person wearing some sort of hidden gadget/suit could really levitate? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
To levitate a frog it takes a 20 Tesla Bitter Solenoid. Such a magnet requires 6 megawatts to run (20,000 amps at 300 volts). It also requires 22 gallons per second of chilled cooling water. A human is about 3,000 times heavier, so I suspect 19 gigawatts would do. I live in California, where 55.5 gigawatts of electricity could be available if all the power plants were running at full capacity. We had rolling blackouts when demand peaked at 30 gigawatts recently, as 11 gigawatts were offline due to repairs. If money were no object, you could levitate yourself in a magnet the size of a modest sports stadium. Of course, you would be inside a cylinder barely larger than your body, and I doubt that camera equipment would work there. So your audience might be limited. | ||
| aspieman |
Excellent! :D When can we start building?! How about a playing card? Can we levitate a playing card with a fairly large gap between the card and the equipment? i.e. a large enough gap to enable the use of a camera to show that there are no strings etc? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
Perhaps you should use one of the other levitation techniques, instead of diamagnetically stabilized levitation. Consider some of these sites: 4.25 inch levitating globe Bigger Globe Anti-Gravity Levitator levitating globe levitating globe | ||
| aspieman |
There are other levitation techniques? I want to present an illusion that will baffle the pros. So wires and traditional 'illusions' are out. Ideally I want to tell the audience the truth; that what they are seeing is a true levitation, no wires, no mirrors, no camera tricks. Thanks for the links I will investigate further.  | ||
| mark |
call me a sad looser , but it had to be done.. you know the hoverboard out of the film 'Back to the Future 2' well I made a minuture one (~30mm) from your levitating Pyrolytic Graphite and suspended it over magnets, it even has little black sand paper grips on it (also I painted it white too!) It looks quite good. You can even do mini stunts with your fingers with it! I think a life size one (given a really powerful magnet!) would be really manauverable if not a health hazzard from the intense magnetic field. | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
You know you can post photos here, right? I'm sure the rest of our readers would love to see it! | ||
| Mark |
Here are two photo's the first one is normal Pyrolytic graphite and the second is the floating 'hoverboard' (As you can see I put a wooden mahogany surround over the magnets to make it look better).   | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
Nice! | ||
| Gregg Tourville Unregistered guest |
Obivously it is not very possible to make a hoverboard using the magnetic feild around the earth, but what if you had a track of magnets to hover above? How big of a magnet would you need then? is this possible to do for uner 300 dollars, or at all? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (sfield) New member Username: sfield Post Number: 9 Registered: 12-2004 |
You can make a hoverboard out of pyrolytic graphite above some supermagnets, using nothing more than our levitation kits. However, to lift a person, the sheet of pyrolytic graphite would have to be very large, and the number of magnets needed would be large as well. If our levitation kit can lift half a gram (I am guessing -- I have not measured it) then it would take over 180,000 levitation kits to lift me. We sell the kits for $20 each, plus shipping. So, for under 4 million dollars, you could make a hoverboard, although it would be 18 feet long and 18 feet wide. | ||
| lysdexia Unregistered guest |
I'm guessing Gregg Tourville has not been introduced to Lenz diamagnetism. | ||
| AnotherAnonymous Unregistered guest |
An alternate idea is to reverse the operation, make the board the magnet, and the ground (arena) the diamagnetic material. However, this could only practically be done with superconductors (perfect diamagnets), which would require about 130 Kelvin (or whatever the current record is) or about -230 F. Just wear warm clothes. Probably still be a few million dollars, but I think you would float much higher. This has sorta been done before, for publicity stunt purposes. Here is a floating Sumo Wrestler: http://www.hfml.ru.nl/pics/sumo.gif | ||
| Anonymous |
Or instead of using magnets and graphite, use a high voltage source and a non-uniform electrostatic field. This can easily lift 7 grams with a simple triangle design at around 25,000 Volts DC and a current of around 0.3 milliamps (thats only 7.5 Watts!) I'm pretty sure you could lift alot more with a better design and perhaps a little more power. But thats the easier part, trying to control the lift is a lot harder. I got some ideas on control but no time at the momment to do it. | ||
| Anonymous Posted From: 71.96.29.139 |
well thats less than megawatt | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 640 Registered: 12-2004 |
A Cessna C-172-S-P 180-HP Skyhawk airplane weighs 2558 pounds (fully loaded with fuel, passengers and luggage) and lifts it all with a 180 horsepower engine (and goes 126 nautical miles per hour (145 mph) while doing it). 180 horsepower is 134,226 watts. 2558 pounds is 1,160,289 grams. So the plane can lift 8.6 grams per watt. The device described is lifting 0.933 grams per watt, and is not lifting its power supply or fuel, and is not moving at 145 miles per hour. Not exactly a breakthrough in aeronautics. | ||
| jack (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 80.111.9.82 |
I have an object that weigh 30grams, how can I make this levitate using magnets? with current. | ||
| justine aquino (Mnado) Member Username: Mnado Post Number: 17 Registered: 12-2005 |
im kinda interested in the hover board!any way about that hoverboard how high can it hover?i also think its not possible 1)out off balance 2)who the hell will do that!! solving this is 1)making a carpet like pyrolytic graphite 2)you should stack the magnets not spread 3)asking an expert disadvantages are 1)when you fall there might be a pinch piont causing blood clot 2)when you tilt then accelerated BOOM!! you might crash to a wall or a dog sh!t 3)very expensive advantages are 1)its cool having one 2)you'llfeel like floating(literary,..you are) 3)you'll never lack of magnets happy floating and a bad landing! | ||
| Barry Dean (Bds) Junior Member Username: Bds Post Number: 4 Registered: 1-2006 |
Here's a nice floater... a larger .75" ring magnet hovering nicely over a piece of Simon's PG. Without any above restriction, there's room to carry a load.   | ||
| Barry Dean (Bds) Junior Member Username: Bds Post Number: 5 Registered: 1-2006 |
Here's a nice floater... a larger .75" ring magnet hovering nicely over a piece of Simon's PG. Without any above restriction, there's room to carry a load. | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 924 Registered: 12-2004 |
Too bad you aren't showing the top magnet. People might get the wrong impression. | ||
| Barry Dean (Bds) Junior Member Username: Bds Post Number: 6 Registered: 1-2006 |
Didn't intend to give a wrong impression. My digital camera battery went dead while photographing. I'll follow up with others. In the meantime, the upper lift magnets are three 1.75" rings (N50) as is the smaller .75" in the image. Stability seems quite good, even without an above layer of PG. | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 928 Registered: 12-2004 |
It can float higher if you add the top plate. You are letting gravity do the stabilization instead of the top plate. By not lifting as high as it would go with the top plate, gravity is keeping it down, and diamagnetism is keeping it up. With a top plate, you can lower the top magnet more, thus raising the floating magnet more, until gravity is completely cancelled. As you have it set up, you are at risk of the floating magnet bouncing up out of the safe zone, whereupon it would quickly jump up to smash itself against the top magnet, most likely severely damaging the floating magnet, if not both. If someone pushed the floating magnet down to touch the pyrolytic graphite and then let go suddenly, that would probably be enough to make it jump up too high. | ||
| Barry Dean (Bds) Junior Member Username: Bds Post Number: 7 Registered: 1-2006 |
Simon, you are correct of course on all points. It certainly should be pointed out that these magnets are of such strength, you must always respect proper use and safety. I removed the top piece of PG to allow better viewing for those that have not observed this first hand. Having broke several magnets already I have added some foam at the top. I'm also working within the confines of a box.  | ||
| Barry Dean (Bds) Junior Member Username: Bds Post Number: 8 Registered: 1-2006 |
Sorry, image is a bit large, going to have to learn how to control that. | ||
| greg koz (Greg1118) Intermediate Member Username: Greg1118 Post Number: 30 Registered: 10-2006 |
Someone sould try making a "deck" of cards that is actually a foam rectangular prisim that is decorated to look like a deck of cards with a magnet concealed inside of it. instead of levitating a card, you could levitate an entire deck. | ||
| Natasha Forrler (Forrler) New member Username: Forrler Post Number: 1 Registered: 1-2009 |
hey I Have a class were I get to pick my project, so I decided to go with the physics of repelling magnets and building a hover bored. I need multiple pieces of advise but I'll start with the most basic, What should I use as the hover part?? I've heard that things that repel magnets (such as graphite)though I also heard that graphite would need to be thin, how thin??? That's really my biggest issue, can you help??? Any and all advice is appreciated!!! Thanks tons! Natasha Forrler | ||
| Theresa Simmons (Theresa) Senior Member Username: Theresa Post Number: 102 Registered: 1-2008 |
Look at some of the photos on this page. The design with the top magnet (and no top PG piece) could in theory lift things that are pretty heavy. But those things would get smashed to bits if the box was jostled and the floating magnet jumped up to slam into the top magnet. The floating PG is paper thin, but you can put paper on top of it. A paper surfer cutout might be nice. | ||
| Natasha Forrler (Forrler) New member Username: Forrler Post Number: 2 Registered: 1-2009 |
Thanks But do you think there is anyway to prevent it from being jostled?? What I'm trying to do is create a board that hovers at least 6 inches off the ground and hold 180lb person. I'm not sure if this is possible, but it's definably plausible. I'd also like them to be safe for kids as young as 12. One more thing, are repelling magnets really the way to go? Would it be better to have some sort of electrical field? Oh, and as far as propulsion goes what's the best idea? I'd like to have a soler powered engine, but it can't be to bulky.  |
