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Lexus Creates a Hoverboard
walterbyrd writes: Lexus has built a functional prototype of a hoverboard that hovers several centimeters off the ground. The "Slide" is for demonstration purposes only and works through magnetic levitation created by superconductors, a spokesperson says. USA Today reports: "As cool as that sounds, there are some major limitations. Since it operates magnetically, it only can hover over a steel surface. And it also only works as long as the liquid nitrogen holds out."
Not very impressive.
Maglev with superconductors and liquid nitrogen is not very impressive?
Sorry, I disagree.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Underwhelming.
The Year of the Lexus Hoverboard!
Yeah, of course, not a real, practical hoverboard, but a pretty cool gimmick nonetheless.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
no power, still doesn't work over water. lame.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Would be more impressive. Have to assume it can't support a person on it since there isn't one in the pic.
Not that a person standing on it would ever make it "work".
There isn't even a video of it moving so who knows how it even behaves.
'A steel surface' - bullshit.
A closely packed array of magnets - maybe. (magnetised steel is not enough).
Aluminium - again sort-of-plausible at high speeds.
But - not steel.
This "hoverboard" prototype works over a metalic base - i can only think of it as a "train", if ever used for something practical.
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
October 21st is getting closer.
Tony Hawk has already rode a hoverboard that uses inductive magnetism for the board to hover over a copper surface.
Skateboards have trucks that pivot the axles toward or away from each-other providing the ability to steer. Can this hoverboard respond in a similar fashion via inductive drag from the edges of the board?
Life is not for the lazy.
Steel surfaces are a very poor choice because they are ferromagnetic - ie attractive magnetism, which is the last thing you want when you are trying to hover above it.
What you really need is repulsive magnetism (diamagnetic) behaviour, which needs graphite (very weak), superconductors (perfect diamagnetism) or very good conductors like copper, silver, gold, or most probably relatively cheap aluminium in which eddy currents can be induced by a changing magnetic field to mimic strong diamagnetism via Lens's law. This is the only way this demo could work - by using AC superconducting magnets to induce repulsive levitation forces.
Another quite feasible option would be to make a large continuous superconducting plane under some really good cryogenic insulation. Then you could float around on hoverboards containing permanent magnets with almost no losses or input power (other than cooling).
Water is also slightly diamagnetic, so with sufficiently strong superconducting magnets you could hover above it - though this is not currently feasible given field strengths required.
You bojo! It doesn't work on water, unless you've got power!
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
US Military to Develop Star Wars Style Hoverbikes With British Company is an earlier headline. Now it's Lexus creating a hoverboard.
They should combine their efforts but then the USA military will only be able to use those bikes in wars on planets or at least roads made of metal. Maybe the first sign of USA planning an attack will be USA offering a country to pave their roads with sheet metal.
You can't handle the truth.
If someone could invent a hoverboard it would mean much more than a fun pass time. It would mean a basis for a propulsion method that could permit spaceflight without massive fuel chugging rockets that like to occasionally explode just for fun. What if a 767 had the same fuel to payload ratio as a rocket and it also required the same level of logistical support? Rockets are *not* a viable form of space propulsion. If someone actually came up with a hoverboard it would mean going to Mars would be more like going on a cruise. It would mean going into orbit would be trivial.
Space agencies and business have become a cover for engineering rocket clubs - rather than creative labs we really need which can delve into hard physics problems that solve the real core challenges we have been presented. I am dumbfounded by how many people think rockets will enable a space faring civilization. Continued perception of rockets as a viable form of space faring propulsion actually retards the development of the human race into becoming a space faring civilization. Rockets being the only solution does not automatically mean rockets are a viable solution. Please quit ignoring the real challenges presented. /random rant
Before someone makes a working hoverboard, we will first hear about the principle that makes it possible. Because one that's practical is almost guaranteed to get someone a Nobel Prize. And certainly Lexus would go for that if they could.
No new principles lately. There is an existing principle of magnetic repulsion that would work only in an extreme condition. One requiring really special stuff buried in the street, and probably including liquid nitrogen to keep it working for even a short time and a few feet.
So, it's a gimmick.
Bruce Perens.
... it brings new meaning to "metal up your ass." Doh!
Well, I did that once with a bottle of liquid nitrogen from Airco and a superconductor I bought from Edmund Scientific. This was before there was a Slashdot. So, no, not impressive.
Bruce Perens.
In the 1990s, yes, very cool. Now it's just a reminder that a couple of dozen students back then could have attached the BiSiCuYt superconductor discs that they made in a practical subject onto a bit of wood and have them all levitate at once instead of individually. It would have been more impressive at University open days than the little 25mm discs we were using, but they were impressive enough and people could understand that if you had a lot of the things you could levitate more mass.
The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.
Circumcision is child abuse.
The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.
Hmmm... to be honest i don't understand how that could happen (if you don't mean something else, that i also don't understand...), but: why would that be a problem? Eels are delicious (at least for us Greeks)!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
What's on the tele then?
Bruce Perens.
I don't get this meme about eels. I'm still in last week's Splatoon re I'm a squid/I'm a kid.
And it used the same concept.. Magnets and liquid nitrogen... They aren't the first to do this. Pretty sure Tony Hawk participated in a video with one as well (there was one that was a hoax, the other wasn't)
Exactly. Now we just need to get the hardware right. That's a material science/engineering problem. Give it 50-100 years. It's a prototype.
Well, its nice to have levitation (although it requires a very specific environment to work), but riding a hoverboard without thrust is as much fun as wind surfing without wind.
Actually thinking about it, why not equip the rider with a fire extinguisher? It worked for WALL-E!
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
You are a few decades off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Circumcision is child abuse.
Look, you're overlooking the obvious, which is that a real hoverboard can never work.
Back to the Future was a charming movie, but unless I've missed something, there's no friction between the board and the ground (or water), so there's no way that you can turn. The movie would've been shit if the hoverboard only went in a straight line, so they glossed over that.
If you lean to one side, you won't force the board to turn like a wheeled version would.
You'd simple fall off.
So a hoverboard that actually HOVERS !
Great - you know - it's not going to do anything else but hover, and you can never use a "real" one anyway (because physics duh), so why are you not impressed?
Didn't Santa bring you your pink rainbow kitten-unicorn last Christmas either?
So we need to get Michael J. Fox on this thing, wearing a pair of these: http://www.independent.co.uk/l... (Nike self-lacing trainers)
We have 4 months to make this happen, people. chop chop!
(Anyone got a spare DeLorean parked in their garage?!)
First you buy a fleet of Russian hovercrafts and now you're begging for our money! Morons!
Ok, it's a hoverboard - in the narrow sense of it being a board and it hovers.
One would expect it to to still hover with 80kg of person standing on it. Does it do that? A cursory look shows me no pictures of this.
Cubs win World Series
Not exactly "So like every other prototype "hoverboard", then"
This one uses magnetic levitation. (Thus works only over a steel surface).
The one from the kickstarter project uses magnetic induction (Thus works over any conducting surface).
Get a bunch of engineers, split them into groups, and pack each group in a different room.
Ask them something awesome like an hoverboard, and they'll come out with probably a dozen of different solutions, each with its own advantage and short-comings. Including levitation solutions that explicitly work over water.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Invent a hoverboard that hovers over asphalt, soil and water with no friction, send a prototype and I'll gladly equip it with a friction generating mechanism that comes into play when the user leans in a direction. I'll just make it work by putting the friction eliminator that you built in in reverse.
.. in Japan there are already trains using same technology for more than decade.
It annoys me how this news is everywhere. Its nothing but hype. There is nothing new about this, its not clever and as a transporting device for people its utterly useless. Can we please move on.
a) What makes you think that "we are begging for your money"? This whole issue is for giving us money so we can give it back to you (we have a budget surplus for our internal needs, we use the loans only to pay back the older loans), and by that no bankruptcy is declared (which would mean some disturbance for ALL).
b) What makes you think that buying some (much needed for our special defence needs) fleet of hovercrafts is a bad idea? Keeping ourselves capable to defend against Muslims is the best idea in the world... you (i guess you are from an EU civilized nation, since you wrote "your money") should do the same!
c) What makes you think that having Greeks protecting Europe from Muslims does not worth paying for? Only a moron can not understand this...
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
Amen brother. Can't post the truth for fear of downmods. Seems almost everyone needs a red pill of late.
Yes, it's a thing that hovers, but implicit in the term "hoverboard" specifically is a functionality like a skateBOARD or a surfBOARD, ie someone can ride it. None of the videos I've seen shows it supporting any weight but itself (nor even actually moving), which is hardly more impressive than a levitating magnet in a lab.
Seriously, has the media lost even the slightest trace of criticality to their reporting? We just cheerfully repeat whatever some marketing wonk has told us as fact?
-Styopa
This was before there was a Slashdot
Jeesh... so there was no way to brag about it at the time? Inconceivable!
Better late than never, hey?
Science, you let me down!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=eOH15_pqWZ4
Well, TFA is really thin on details ... so either it's just puffery of something which is considered routine, or there's more to it than we think and they've actually done something new.
I know the actual levitation bit has been around a while, but it doesn't seem like Lexus/Toyota is going to make an announcement without it actually being some form of advance.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The superconducting magnets need to be installed in a controlled environment. A "hover park" if you will. Then you can sell some no moving parts basically slick looking steel boards that hover over the surfaces in your hover park, but don't work anywhere else. Then you control the hard moving parts that need constant liquid nitrogen cooling and special magnets, and you only have to worry about one time installations, not mass production.
it's the future, all other technologies are dead. Where can I 3D print one at home? Can you also show me the plans to 3D print the steel floor too? If it included the liquid nitrogen too that would be great.
If there is a budget surplus, why the need for further loans? It should be trivial to start paying off loans with that surplus money.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Lexus is a brand for products, Toyota is the company.
iPod did not create the iPhone, did it? No, Apple did.
If there is a budget surplus, why the need for further loans? It should be trivial to start paying off loans with that surplus money.
I did not express it very well with this "we have a budget surplus for our internal needs" - i mean we have "primary" ("first level"? i don't know the English term!) surplus, which is the surplus before any loan payments (secondary). And those loan payments are mostly the interests (and any expiring bonds which usualy we sell as new bonds for most of the amount with usualy lower interest rate - this way we repay *some* of the bond, and the rest of the amount becomes new debt to repayed in the future).
In other words: if "magicaly" (or because of bankruptcy!) we got rid of our debt, we could loan YOU (the rest of the world) money!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
I've had it with these motherfucking eels on this motherfucking hovercraft!
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I already have a board that hovers over asphalt and soil (but not water), customized with 4 rotating plastic friction generating mechanisms, mounted on ball bearings. Unfortunately they have to remain in contact with the ground to work.
Ad Block Plus works great, thanks for your concern. You should work on that doctors appointment though, you need a med check.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
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APK
P.S.=> Ab+ does less than hosts & less efficiently - hosts do MORE w/ less + Hosts start w/ the IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to operate (as 1st resolver queried):
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... apk
Maglev with superconductors and liquid nitrogen is not very impressive?
Sorry, I disagree.
Not for a skateboard. I'd rather have a skateboard with wheels that could go on any surface than a hoverboard that required a steel surface. Of course, it would make a hell of a monorail.....
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I've had it with these motherfucking eels on this motherfucking hovercraft!
I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking F train. http://gothamist.com/2015/06/2...
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
a) What makes you think that "we are begging for your money"? This whole issue is for giving us money so we can give it back to you (we have a budget surplus for our internal needs, we use the loans only to pay back the older loans), and by that no bankruptcy is declared (which would mean some disturbance for ALL).
b) What makes you think that buying some (much needed for our special defence needs) fleet of hovercrafts is a bad idea? Keeping ourselves capable to defend against Muslims is the best idea in the world... you (i guess you are from an EU civilized nation, since you wrote "your money") should do the same!
c) What makes you think that having Greeks protecting Europe from Muslims does not worth paying for? Only a moron can not understand this...
Whatever you do, do not try building a giant wooden statue of Mohammed and concealing your army inside and leaving it outside the Muslims' gates so they'll pull it in.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
a) What makes you think that "we are begging for your money"? This whole issue is for giving us money so we can give it back to you (we have a budget surplus for our internal needs, we use the loans only to pay back the older loans), and by that no bankruptcy is declared (which would mean some disturbance for ALL).
b) What makes you think that buying some (much needed for our special defence needs) fleet of hovercrafts is a bad idea? Keeping ourselves capable to defend against Muslims is the best idea in the world... you (i guess you are from an EU civilized nation, since you wrote "your money") should do the same!
c) What makes you think that having Greeks protecting Europe from Muslims does not worth paying for? Only a moron can not understand this...
Whatever you do, do not try building a giant wooden statue of Mohammed and concealing your army inside and leaving it outside the Muslims' gates so they'll pull it in.
You want to know what is the difference between a Greek like me and a "barbarian" like you? I find your idea very good my friend!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
See subject & LMAO @ U, boy -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
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---
I use what you already have that works & does more with LESS, no less - you by way of comparison? Pile on "MoAr" that doesn't do as nearly as much & what it's supposed to do, massively inefficiently no less (see above)?
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APK
P.S.=> Gonna go "cry in your cereal" now, boy?
(You ought to for being STUPID enough to use OR SUGGEST a blatantly INFERIOR solution! See above - it's fact & truth via reputable sources)... apk