Quantum Levitation: The Coolest Science You'll See Today

[GundamSentinel]

So, to recap, we've got:

Quark-gluon plasma: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.286881-Large-Hadron-Collider-Creates-Incredibly-Dense-Primordial-Matter

Commercial Space Travel: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.318341-Did-you-know-space-travel-is-happening

Holding anti-matter for 16 minutes: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.289614-CERN-Scientists-Capture-Antimatter-For-Record-16-Minutes

And now quantum floaty magic. Not to mention computers in our pockets that are voice controlled like in star trek. It's the future, it's coming, be ready. Otherwise you'll miss it. Come on, you guys can't be jaded enough to look at this without any emotion. It's friggin floating! For fucks sake, this is UFO technology.

Oh, and let's not forget carbon nanotubes cloaking devices. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-mirage-effect-video.html

 

[FlameAx]

SORCERY BURN THE WITCH!!!

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

So, to recap, we've got:

Quark-gluon plasma: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.286881-Large-Hadron-Collider-Creates-Incredibly-Dense-Primordial-Matter

Commercial Space Travel: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.318341-Did-you-know-space-travel-is-happening

Holding anti-matter for 16 minutes: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.289614-CERN-Scientists-Capture-Antimatter-For-Record-16-Minutes

And now quantum floaty magic. Not to mention computers in our pockets that are voice controlled like in star trek. It's the future, it's coming, be ready. Otherwise you'll miss it. Come on, you guys can't be jaded enough to look at this without any emotion. It's friggin floating! For fucks sake, this is UFO technology.

Oh, and let's not forget carbon nanotubes cloaking devices. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-mirage-effect-video.html

And


Now all we need is jetpacks and hovercars...

EDIT: Wait, that whole crystal is saphhire?!

 

[The Great JT]

Science, you have blown my mind yet again. We need to put more funding into this.

 

[wgering]

My question: If the thing is negative 185 Celsius how does he avoid burning his fingers when he touches it?

Well, I have no clue, but I made this kinda analogy:

You can touch liquid nitrogen without issues as long as you don't dunk your hand in it, so I'm guessing they laced some chem that they froze over ti that reacts to oxygen similar to liquid nitrogen thus preventing burns?

I dunno...

Actually, you could even dunk your hand in a vat of LN2, provided you don't leave it there for too long. The temperature of your hand relative to the nitrogen is so high that any nitrogen that comes close to your hand will vaporize, forming a thin layer of nitrogen gas between your hand and the liquid nitrogen. Never had the courage to try it myself, but I've seen it done.

Disclaimer: DUNKING YOUR HAND INTO LN2 IS DANGEROUS. DON'T TRY IT.
Phew. That was close.


Also if you want a macroscopic demonstration of the effects of quantum mechanics, get three pieces of polarized glass/plastic, place two orthogonally so no light gets through, then place the third in between them at a 45-degree angle. Magic! Physics!

 

[Dutch 924]

Dear Santa...

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Tenser? Is that you?
OT and semi-obscure references aside: Holy smokes, batman! This is five hundred kinds of awesome!

 

[Wieke]

My question: If the thing is negative 185 Celsius how does he avoid burning his fingers when he touches it?

Well, I have no clue, but I made this kinda analogy:

You can touch liquid nitrogen without issues as long as you don't dunk your hand in it, so I'm guessing they laced some chem that they froze over ti that reacts to oxygen similar to liquid nitrogen thus preventing burns?

I dunno...

Actually, you could even dunk your hand in a vat of LN2, provided you don't leave it there for too long. The temperature of your hand relative to the nitrogen is so high that any nitrogen that comes close to your hand will vaporize, forming a thin layer of nitrogen gas between your hand and the liquid nitrogen. Never had the courage to try it myself, but I've seen it done.

Disclaimer: DUNKING YOUR HAND INTO LN2 IS DANGEROUS. DON'T TRY IT.
Phew. That was close.

That's the leidenfrost effect. Mythbusters used it to dunk their hands in molten lead:


Wikipedia - Leidenfrost Effect [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect]

 

[PunkRex]

Aaaaawww man, I am so failing access to science...

My question: If the thing is negative 185 Celsius how does he avoid burning his fingers when he touches it?

I was thinking that... he must have invisable wizard armour on.

 

[Squaseghost]

I don't understand how those women in the background can just ignore the awesomeness that is happening behind them.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Question: Doesn't the laws of thermodynamics disprove true super-conductivity? Is it not impossible to get absolute zero resistance in an object (though not impossible to get it really, really low, thus making it look like no energy is lost)?

Yep, any temperature at all will cause some minor energy loss. It would only violate thermodynamics if it was at absolute zero, which is probably impossible due to that whole zero-point energy business.

 

[gamersince1976]

Science.

It works, bitches.

-xkcd

 

[Strazdas]

Sorry, but this is nothing new. magnetism could levitate objects before, they are even trying to put some microschemes in your own pcs with similar properties to better use space on small micrschemes(none out yet still in test phase)

 

[ShAmMz0r]

Question: Doesn't the laws of thermodynamics disprove true super-conductivity? Is it not impossible to get absolute zero resistance in an object (though not impossible to get it really, really low, thus making it look like no energy is lost)?

Yep, any temperature at all will cause some minor energy loss. It would only violate thermodynamics if it was at absolute zero, which is probably impossible due to that whole zero-point energy business.

That depends on what you think "true super-conductivity" is. Any conductor would have null resistance at absolute zero, which is unreachable. The whole point of superconductivity is that for some materials it happens above absolute zero.

Also if you want a macroscopic demonstration of the effects of quantum mechanics, get three pieces of polarized glass/plastic, place two orthogonally so no light gets through, then place the third in between them at a 45-degree angle. Magic! Physics!

Awesome example. It will pretty much awaken the scientist in anyone who tries it.

 

[Voxgizer]

cool my dream of a back to the future hover board is getting closer

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

That is awesome. I am I the only one who thought Scalextric when the disk was going round that track thing.

I want to now open a sushi restaurant that uses these superconductors to leviate food over to people, with the slogan "our food has so little fat, it floats"

 

[Venats]

The thing with that is that it's completely wrong. This has never been done in any high school worth the name. No one would let a vat of liquid nitrogen loose near a group of teenagers, it's a recipe for disaster.

Also, this uses fundamentally different principles than magnetic repulsion, which is what you are referring to. Magnetic repulsion relies on the property of magnets that two magnets of the same polarity will repel each other with a certain amount of force. If one of the magnets weighs less than the other, they will repel each other and the one higher up will float in the air.

This experiment uses a property of superconductors that has absolutely nothing to do with magnetic repulsion. Without a charge running through them, superconductors aren't even magnetic. In layman's terms, superconductors don't like to move through magnetic fields. If you try to push one through a magnetic field, they push back to try and not move. It's really complicated, but the gist of it is that moving around a magnet makes it try to move in the opposite direction.

If the magnetic field is strong enough and/or the push is weak enough, then the superconductor is able to create enough counter force to stop its motion. That's how it is suspended in the air. Gravity is not able to exert enough force to override the counter force.

It moves around circular magnets because of the shape of magnetic fields. The layman's version of that is that because the magnet is a ring, it's moving along the magnetic field instead of through it.

It may not be high school material, but it is dated technology. Superconductor levitation via the rejection of the magnetic flux is not new, it has been around for at least ten years, and has, for the last ten years, been limited to around the same temperature gradient. This experiment was demonstrated on a roller coaster track at my college several years ago, and has been demonstrated on symmetric discs every year for the last four at the very least.

This is, as always, popular 'cool' science that can dazzle the layman but is hardly game changing for any physicist or engineer who's worked in or near the field (an din general should not be at all new to any physicist with a college degree). If anything, its somewhat sad that in the last ten years the superconducting field (of research) hasn't made larger progress on their alloy development for reaching higher temperature limits. I remember the optimism some years back that was going on and on about approaching just 273 K. Still nowhere near there.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

My reaction


Oh God yes.