Quantum levitation.

[walker 0]

Hi all

Quantum levetitation:

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By Olivia Solon, Wired UK

Researchers at the school of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University have created a track around which a semiconductor 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...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/quantum-levitation/

As always follow to link to the original text in full

Of interest with regard to replacing wheel based transport technology.

Kind regards walker

[Daniel 0]

That is cool. It's crazy how it can be put on an angle and still stays locked in place.

[valnwt 11]

Very interesting, seems like Arma 3 could include hovering ground vehicles without being unrealistic :P

Edited October 18, 2011 by DanielV

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Of interest with regard to replacing wheel based transport technology.

Sure, if you don't mind driving over roads that are cooled to temperatures cold enough to keep many gasses in a liquid state at atmospheric pressure (or traveling in a vehicle cooled to such a temperature, depending on which part of the system you want to be the superconductor). There isn't much practical use for it until we figure out how to make things superconductive at something approaching room temperature. Anything above −243.2 °C is considered high temperature for a superconductor - and it's a pretty 'labour intensive' process to get anything of appreciable size down to that temperature at atmospheric pressure.

In all honesty, while The Meissner effect is very cool to look at (pardon the pun) and is what immediately grabs the attention, it's hardly a recent discovery; I remember playing with it in lab exercise during the first year of my Physics degree almost 15 years ago and it was 'old' then. The interesting part is how they've managed to produce an material that orientates its magnetic field well enough to the direction of the magnets in the track, that it doesn't spin around or wobble while it's Superdiamagnetic.

[maddogx 13]

Very interesting, seems like Arma 3 could include hovering ground vehicles without being unrealistic :P

As long as they move on rails, sure. ;)

[walker 0]

Hi all

In reply to da12thMonkey

Sure, if you don't mind driving over roads that are cooled to temperatures cold ....

Err use eyes.

Track not frozen.

Object on track frozen.

Yet not so cold the person demonstrating cannot touch it. In other words it is using a near room temperature super conductor.

Case closed

Also consider the track is actually in reality just magnetic lines of force.

The question is do you understand that?

Kind regards walker

Edited October 18, 2011 by walker

[sprayer_faust 0]

An excellent video.

It's a more recent (late 80's probably) ceramic material, that is superconductive below -185 °C. This allows it to be cooled with liquid nitrogen, which is widely available and therefore quite cheap. From the same author: http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/The_physics.html

That he is able to touch it, does not necessarily imply it is not cold. It also depends on thermal conductivity.

[walker 0]

...That he is able to touch it, does not necessarily imply it is not cold. It also depends on thermal conductivity.

Hi sprayer_faust

Yes I know, I was pointing out that the temperature was manageable in reply to comments made by da12thMonkey.

Most people though will not understand that the track is magnetic lines of force, or that statements implications.

Kind regards walker

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Hi all

In reply to da12thMonkey

Err use eyes.

Track not frozen.

Object on track frozen.

I did mention cooling the vehicle to superconducting temperature as an alternative to cooling the road.

The Meissner Effect works either way; with a magnet levitating above a superconductor (the way I did it in the lab), or a superconductor levitating above a magnet (as shown in the vid).

Yet not so cold the person demonstrating cannot touch it. In other words it is using a near room temperature super conductor.

Case closed

The article mentions that the superconductor is cooled by liquid nitrogen (which boils at -196°C or 77K), Yttrium barium copper oxide (the one used here) is superconductive below -181 ºC - pretty bloody cold and, nowhere near room temperature.

You can carefully flick and dab your finger-tip on liquid nitrogen as it boils, and even pour it slowly onto your hands as it evaporates from the surface of your skin on contact; but you wouldn't want to dunk your hand into it, or come into contact with something in thermal equilibrium with LN2, for anything longer than the few seconds it would take for it to start damaging your tissue. You can tell he's trying to hold it for as little time as possible by the way his fingers gingerly hover around it, before he pics it up.

Fact is, you wouldn't want to sit in anything that was in thermal contact with something cooled to below -181 ºC for any period of time. And for a mobile platform, the difficulties in safely storing pressurised liquid nitrogen in the quantities needed to cool an object large enough to carry meaningful loads, to the critical temperature are simply unreasonable. Never mind the 'cool-down time' needed to get that object to temperature each time the system is stopped and started (unless you can replenish the LN2 supply infinitely, it will stop levitating at some point).

A system whereby you are cooling the 'track' and have a magnetic vehicle, seems to me to be easier to maintain on a large scale if not safer.

[st_dux 26]

Yet not so cold the person demonstrating cannot touch it. In other words it is using a near room temperature super conductor.

Case closed

Yeah I mean if you consider -181 °C to be "near room temperature," I guess so.

[instagoat 133]

It´s a very cool piece of technology, unfortunately, not really going anywhere until we get room temperature superconductors.

But if we do, super cheap maglev trains all the way baby. Time to replace the airplanes unless there´s an ocean in the way.

[jakerod 254]

Time to replace the airplanes unless there´s an ocean in the way.

You mean, time to replace the airplanes even if there is an ocean in the way or should I say, a very frozen ocean in the way.

[walker 0]

Hi all

Roads would be the perfect medium to augment.

Consider recent advances in materials science and engineering alone mean we can now create crystalline nano structures of any kind.

A layer of graphene integrated into the lower road bed would make the road multi function. Heck stack the field transport on top of the stone age wheel tech.

Of course one has to remember the "track" is magnetic lines of force but I see many of you are still mesmerized by the old concept of what a "track" is I did not know how many more heavy hints I would have to give.

By the way some one commented that ArmA III ould legitimately use floating tanks. I presume they were considering the Earths magnetic field as the track. I did not see that shown in the video.

However there may be a tank track aplication. Consider replacing the running gear on a conventional tank. This would give you a frictionless ride with inherent suspension. One would still need a drive system for the tracks, perhaps a magnetic one. It should be capable of incredible speed and fuel efficiency compared to conventional purely mechanical running gear.

Other possibilities spokeless wheels to replace conventional air filled tires assuming a magnetic drive. This would be incredibly efficient. Bye bye-bye fossil fuel cars.

Kind regards walker

Edited October 19, 2011 by walker
Damn predictive text!

[sprayer_faust 0]

Of course one has to remember the "track" is magnetic lines of force but I see many of you are still mesmerized by the old concept of what a "track" is I did not know how many more heavy hints I would have to give.

Hi.

I am one of those people. Care to explain more concisely what is on your mind when you write so misteriously about it? Perhaps the lack of dissipative forces?

[st_dux 26]

Walker, you're completely ignoring the extreme cold temperatures that your floating cars of the future would need to maintain in order for this technology to be utilized, which makes the entire idea impractical. The magnetic track isn't the difficult part.

[maddogx 13]

Walker, you're completely ignoring the extreme cold temperatures that your floating cars of the future would need to maintain in order for this technology to be utilized, which makes the entire idea impractical. The magnetic track isn't the difficult part.

Well, it's not like the entire car would need to be that cold, just the superconductors inside it. ;)

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Of course one has to remember the "track" is magnetic lines of force but I see many of you are still mesmerized by the old concept of what a "track" is I did not know how many more heavy hints I would have to give.

By the way some one commented that ArmA III ould legitimately use floating tanks. I presume they were considering the Earths magnetic field as the track. I did not see that shown in the video.

The Earth's magnetic field isn't uniform, and is only normal to the Earth's surface at the magnetic poles. This means that in most cases, the direction of magnetic flux isn't perpendicular to Earth's surface, which it would need to be in order push against a superconducting vehicle running along the Earths surface. And I dare say that the magnetic flux density (flux per unit area) of the Earth's magnetic field at the surface, is too low to make it levitate anywhere, even near the poles.

IMO you'd have to create an artificial magnetic track with a field direction normal to the track's surface, like they did in the video.

Edited October 19, 2011 by da12thMonkey

[walker 0]

Hi all

Japanese example of near room temperature quatum levitation track:

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NB VIDEO is a hoax

A little more complex and now more controled, next stage is to up this to large scale.

As I pointed out there are several possibilities:

1. Augment existing rail tracks by adding electo magenetic tacks. This way you can phase in the system and the the old rolling stock can still run as well.
   
2. Augment the existing road network with an electro magnetic track and have duel use cars that run on wheels where no track exists. Heck you could even add such a system to existing cars as an addon pack
   
3. Spokeless static hub zero friction wheels on electric cars with magnetic drive, running on existing none augmented roads, way more efficient than roller bearings.
   
4. Tracked Vehicles without mechanical running gear; just the tractor track moving on magnetic running gear. More efficient and quieter.
   

And of course there is the whole pimp my scalextrick thing.

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 3, 2012 by walker
Edit video is a hoax :(

[[frl]myke 14]

Now, this is what my son will get on his next birthday.

[Daniel 0]

Myke;2083400']Now' date=' this is what my son will get on his next birthday.[/quote']

I use that exact same thought process for buying presents! :D

This is seriously cool though (pardon the pun). Got me listening to old Wipeout tracks on youtube now...

Edited January 3, 2012 by Daniel

[dm 9]

Japanese example of near room temperature quatum levitation track

The track might be near room temp, but the vehicle still requires a supply of liquid nitrogen.

Still has all the same problems as da12th already pointed out (and you ignored)... :j:

[walker 0]

Hi all

In reply to DM.

Liquid nitrogen is moved around in vehicles every single day, several of the companies I worked for had daily deliveries of it, I used to work with it. Often delivered in a flask in the back of a Ford escort van. Thermal insulation and refrigerator technology are already more than up to the task of dealing with liquid nitrogen.

Only the levitation element needs to be cooled not the whole car as others already pointed out, and as they essentialy answered the point, I felt no need to labour it.

While it may be more correct to call this a high temperature super conductor rather than a room temperature superconductor I feel it is a little pedantic.

If you are really interested in the field I would suggest considering the recent advances in doped graphene superconductors.

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 3, 2012 by walker

[dm 9]

Liquid nitrogen is moved around in vehicles every single day, several of the companies I worked for had daily deliveries of it, I used to work with it. Often delivered in a flask in the back of a Ford escort van. Thermal insulation and refrigerator technology are already more than up to the task of dealing with liquid nitrogen.

Yes, in small quantities (with the exception of, for instance, delivery tankers, but I'm not sure of the logistics involved in that).

What quantities would we need to travel any distance with our wondrous mag-lev cars? Would 50 litres be enough to achieve a 1000km trip? (as is the common "standard" of modern cars) Would we even be able to fit 50 litres of LN in the same/similar space as the existing fuel tank? What are the safety ramifications? (on top of extra thickness/weight for cooling, do we also now have to have a ballistic layer to prevent tank damage in an accident, adding weight and space consumption). Would the same have to be applied to the plumbing and cooling arrays?

There is a whole world of difference in lobbing a few flasks in the back of a transit van, vs. plumbing one for use as a coolant. But that can be flippantly ignored, no?

Only the levitation element needs to be cooled not the whole car as others already pointed out, and as they essentialy answered the point, I felt no need to labour it.

Well it didn't (see above) so lets not just ignore the inconvenient bits, shall we?

What you also fail to consider is how to even propel the damn things. In all the demonstrations either the track has been controlled (impractical for daily use outside of trains, even then its still quite sketchy) or the item has been pushed along by the demonstrator.

If the track is just the electro magnets (whole world of pain there too, what are the safety concerns, where does the power come from...) and the vehicle contains the levitation element, where (and what power source) does the propulsion element sit (and use)?

Its nice on a science-demo level [at the moment], but still not really practical on a day-to-day basis...

[walker 0]

Hi all

In reply to DM

I already drew your attention to Doped Graphene Superconductors. As to the possiblities of the magnetic effects of room temperature Superconductors from Graphene we have some recent research in the field, I should point out that there are several other groups with similar research and findings:

Sorry I forgot First paper linked has to be bought this one does not

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0910/0910.2130.pdf

This paper deals with some of the practical aspects of High Temperature Superconductors:

http://www.atz-gmbh.com/ATZ_bearings_0953-2048_25_1_014007.pdf

There are in point of fact several recent patents on the matter.

The above is what I was talking about in the recent post

..

dealing with the newer HOAX video of the none existant JAPAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY showing the more complex track and controled motion of the levitated models racing on the track:

I must admit I thought the video was CGI when I first saw it which appears to be the case it may be viral marketing by Sony.

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 3, 2012 by walker
Quoted paper not publicly available

[dm 9]

Still conveniently ignoring the remainder of the important problems I see walker... :j:

Also, much lols at the retroactive "Ofcourse I knew this was a fake from the start." :j:

Stay classy