Functioning Hoverboard Unveiled (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Last year, a company called Arx Pax set up a Kickstarter campaign to develop a functioning hoverboard. Now, the company has demonstrated an updated version of the device, which is fully capable of hovering over a surface made out of conductive metal (video on YouTube). CEO Greg Henderson said, "The hover engine creates a primary magnetic field which is then put over a candidate surface like aluminum or copper. The hover engine then creates swirls of electricity and those create a secondary magnetic field, which propels the firsts." The device is expensive; Arx Pax is delivering a handful of units to Kickstarter backers who contributed $10,000. It's out of the reach of typical consumers, but it does seem to work. Plus, the company is sharing their magnetic field technology with teams taking part in the competition to build pods for a prototype of Elon Musk's Hyperloop vacuum tube transportation system.

Comments

It's just maglev.

[meerling]

We've been doing maglev for quite a while now, though few people tried to ride them like a skateboard before. I still haven't seen anything they've done new other than the hype. Now when they don't need a special surface to function, then they can call it a hoverboard.

Swirls of electricity?

[TWX]

I'm not sure how to interpret "swirls of electricity", either in terms of particles or in terms of field theory...