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Researchers Demonstrate Quantum Levitation
UnknownSoldier writes "Wired reports that researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered you can 'lock' a magnetic field into place with a superconductor. They have a very cool demonstration of a frozen puck and some of the neat things you can do with it while its orientation remains locked but its location is movable. Might we someday see high speed trains that will be 'impossible' to tip over, or a new generation of batteries with this technology?"
Awesome!
WHEN Can I order my Hoverboard?!?!?!
This isn't new is it? It's a very cool demonstration, but unless I'm mistaken they didn't discover this--the actual article doesn't say it was a new discovery and I'm fairly sure my physics teacher showed me this a year or two ago. It is really cool, and the physics behind how it works is very interesting. It's pretty accessible too, don't be discouraged from reading up on it because you think it will be too hard to understand.
When has train tipping been a major problem? All those pesky teenagers I tell you - bored and at it again!
SUPERCONDUCTOR not semiconductor !
Where can I buy this desk toy set?
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saying that you can not sue if you get hurt.
This has been around since the time of Carl Sagan. For a much better explanation of what is happening (and the science behind it), see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeS_U9qFg7Y&feature=player_embedded
They haven't invented anything new so don't get excited about wipeout ships and hoverboards just yet. The problem is the immense amount of energy to keep the superconductor cooled.
of calling a superconductor a semiconductor? /., where are you editors?
WIRED, where do you get your reporters?
And
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Firstly it's a superconductor, not a semiconductor (as would have been obvious had the editor even bothered to glance at TFA). They're totally different things. Also, this is not news at all: it's a cool video, but again as TFA states it's just an example of the well-known Meissner effect.
The simple error in the original post is trivial - it's a superconductor. And it demonstrates flux pinning. But this has been demonstrated ever since superconductors have been made with non-superconducting regions in them (ie, not elemental superconductors like Pb and Al). This is *not* news. Unless it is the mid 1980s and I've not noticed.
that I can say someone showed me something that makes my jaw drop. But this most certainly did. Wow, this absolutely floored me. Good work guys.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
All technical typos and misleading whatever aside, and aside from all the hawking about how this has already existed or this is not new blah blah blah....THIS SHIT IS STILL FUCKING AMAZING. GET OVER YOURSELVES.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Why the "quantum"???? can anybody explain?
This is flux pinning, and apparently, is a different phenomenon than the Meissner effect.
Try this longer video instead. It has construction details, explanations, double levitation etc.
Also, "semiconductor"? Jeez, that is a lame mistake even by Slashdot standards!
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this has been demonstrated before. now, would the entire track with puck locked in flux in a track weigh the same as the sum of the entire track + the puck not locked in flux in a track? if no, THAT would be news.
Might someday we see high speed trains that will be 'impossible' to tip over
Yeah, because tipping over is the major concern with high speed trains. Who writes this stuff?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I love living in the future.
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I mean yea, I'm using an ad-blocker, but /. already doesn't serve ads to me.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
When this video first made the rounds on Fark and elsewhere.
By the way, here's a longer video with more explanation of how it works.
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This is the first bit of science I've seen that could plausibly be turned into one of the staples of SciFi, the tractor beam. How long before they have one that can move the (levitating) puck at a distance?
Superconductors have been there for ages. I remember being shown levitation like this in high school. The article doesn't seem to mention the actual discovery.
Same here. I normally unblock ads on sites I like, but on /. they tend to more annoying than on most of my favorite sites, and they are often rather heavy as well. So I use the free ad removal, and I block, in case my karma falls too low for ad removal. Sometimes when I can afford it, I subscribe for a while as well.
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We did essentially this in my high school physics class in 1987.
but didn't consider that post worthy of potentially burning karma.
This has always puzzled me, why care what your karma status is? If your karma gets dinged, big freaking whooptydoo.
I tend to only go AC if I'm posting a question so stupid that I don't want it associated with me.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Nice piece of non-physically driven motion (after initial nudge). No physical wear if the pieces don't touch each other.
If that puck were in a complete vacuum in a supercooled chamber I wonder how long that puck would rotate?
You missed the part in the video where they turn the track upside down. If they were only using the meisner effect, the puck would drop to the ground. They have found a way to control the magnetic field more precisely, and pin the object in place. ( ie, a useful example of the engineering techniques now possible with the effect, instead of just ooh, shiny. )
There are a ton of posts going on about how it's just the "Meissner effect", the researchers aren't claiming that is something new, they are claiming they have built the first track that uses the Meissner effect for levitation and can lock the magnetic field to angle the object.
"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."
One step closer to being able to play WipeOut! for reals... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHlHitIc7pY
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This is flux pinning, and apparently, is a different phenomenon than the Meissner effect.
Yes, but this was already well known in the late 1980's when type II superconductors hit center stage in the solid-state physics world. And 30 seconds later every single person in the field thought "hey, we could SOOO build a sweet maglev train with this". But it's still not practical by any stretch of the imagination except as a neat toy.
So /. is only 20+ years late instead of ~80 years with the Meissner effect.
This is not the Meissner effect! If it were you wouldn't be able to do the stunt where they move the disk to a different angle and it stays there. This is more subtle. The Meissner effect involves superconductors not letting magnetic field lines pass through the superconductor. This involves special superconductors that allow magnetic field lines to pass through but make the field lines get trapped in imperfections in the superconductor. The name of this effect is "flux pinning" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_pinning. Here is the website of the group who made this video where they explain it http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/Quantum_Levitation.html
every physics student gets a demonstration of this effect in his solid state physics lecture. But usually the superconductor is rather small and is put into a small matchbox type car to drive it around a track. Here they used a relatively large and bulky superconducting disk, so the orientation locking is more visible. Although not new, it never gets old and I'm always fascinated by it. Just don't use the word "discovery" here!
I've known about that effect for ages but I haven't ever seen a live video of it, so I still find it to be reasonably nifty. I'll be much more impressed when you can do it with a room temperature hockey puck, though.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
now a room temprature superconductor. *that* would be news.
This effect is well known and has been since somebody named Meissner wrote a paper about it in 1933. In 1986, I attended a public lecture at Caltech by Richard Feynman on the "Meissner Effect," which was accompanied by a video starring (surprise) a frozen hockey puck. It was mildly interesting at the time, but that was a quarter century ago -- to see the same effect treated like it is something strange and new is just sad. Science should be about discovery, not showmanship. Looking at you Sagan, Feynman, Tyson...
Look at 0:53 and 1:50 in the video you posted -- this train is locked in position in *one orientation* at *one distance* from the track, and it happens when you cool the superconductor down. The video in the original post shows you can set the orientation and distance by applying greater than some threshold force, and then it is preserved. Orientation preservation is remarkable.