• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Arx Pax magnetic hoverboard

icerat said:
It's been getting lots of press coverage today thanks to their hendo hoverboard kickstarter campaign

Doesn't seem to require anything particularly revolutionary, it needs an appropriate floor base to react against and currently only has an operating time of a few minutes.
Click to expand...

That is revolutionary. So far nobody was able to levitate above piece of metal. You always needed coils or magnets in the base. Or the levitating object was hanging from metallic or magnetic base. Or you could levitate superconductive material above magnetic base.
This has to work by inducing currents in the base in some smart way ..
 
From the kickstarter -

Lenz’s law explains how eddy currents are created when magnets are moved relative to a conductive material. These eddy currents in turn create an opposing magnetic field in the conductor. Our core technology, which we call Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA™), focuses this field more efficiently.

Not an area I know much about, but there's plenty of videos around demoing lenz's law, which doesn't need opposing coils or permanent magnets. If you could somehow cleverly direct the eddies and related fields, wouldn't this be able to get the effect they're demonstrating?
 
icerat said:
From the kickstarter -

Lenz’s law explains how eddy currents are created when magnets are moved relative to a conductive material. These eddy currents in turn create an opposing magnetic field in the conductor. Our core technology, which we call Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA™), focuses this field more efficiently.

Not an area I know much about, but there's plenty of videos around demoing lenz's law, which doesn't need opposing coils or permanent magnets. If you could somehow cleverly direct the eddies and related fields, wouldn't this be able to get the effect they're demonstrating?
Click to expand...

Guesses is all I've got. This effect can be demonstrated by dropping strong magnet through copper tube. It will fall noticeably slower. You are right, it is closest thing (I know of) to what these guys claim to do.

Hm .. what about coil vibrating up and down .. with current being switched on during down movement, and turned off during up movement. If there was some amount of resistance to the movement of the coil, you would get net force.
And that device of theirs does vibrate, even if it sounds more like just fixed coil singing under switched current.
 
Dr.Sid said:
"This has to work by inducing currents in the base in some smart way .."
Click to expand...

Indeed, and it has been a standard physics lab demonstration for about the last century. There's only one difference, the magnet used to be on the bench and it was an aluminum ring that levitated. The magnet was powered by 60 Hz AC. This induced a current in the ring that created an opposing field and made it float. It was terribly power-hungry, both the magnet and the ring became very hot in a few tens of seconds.
Given modern battery technology and a free choice of AC frequency there's no reason why this shouldn't work the other way up -- at least for a while.
 
A quick Google found this demo of a levitating ring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HLFT7XCMjc

This one uses a non-conducting guide rod to stop the ring shooting off to the side. (It's in a state of unstable equilibrium.) In the inverted case, where the conducting base is much larger than the magnet, there would be no sideways force.
 
icerat said:
Not an area I know much about, but there's plenty of videos around demoing lenz's law, which doesn't need opposing coils or permanent magnets. If you could somehow cleverly direct the eddies and related fields, wouldn't this be able to get the effect they're demonstrating?
Click to expand...



Had a demo like this in the local science museum (OMSI) when I was a kid (They used a pie plate). It's old science. They have managed to make the tech a lot more portable, though.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom