Uses For An Idea

[belovelife]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1pkFMP/www.motherboard.tv/2011/10/20/heads-up-hoverboarders-here-comes-quantum-levitation--2

 

 

 

how many uses can you think of for this?

[CraigD]

First a caution about the stumbleupon article: it’s not very well researched or critically written.

 

The Meissner effect is well-known and well explained, but it’s purely a magnetic one, not “anti-gravity”. The article acknowledges this, then goes on to say that “the idea” (for the real Meissner effect, I took it to mean) was put forth by Eugene Podkletnov in 1992, who because he “was not an electromechanical expert and couldn’t do much to help with the system’s actual construction”. Podkletnov, however, claims that superconductors can actually cancel (or bend, or reflect – the wording of his claims varies) gravity, producing an effective force (he’s claimed anywhere from 0.3% to 2% of the opposing force of gravity) that effects even non-magnetic objects – in other words, true anti-gravity. His results haven’t been replicated by any credible lab or publically demonstrated, so most people believe they’re either fraudulent or wishfully wrong, while some conspiracy theorists believe his claims are factual, but being suppressed by all the credible scientists and engineers in the world familiar with them.

 

So, assuming we’re talking about the well-confirmed Meissner effect, not some likely fake antigravity device, as the Meissner effect requires both a magnetic field and a superconductor to produce its famous levitating effects, its uses are limited to situation where you have these both, such as the demonstration rig shown in the video in the stumbleupon article. It could be used for magnetic levitation, such as for a train, but either the train or the track would have to be made superconducting, which currently requires expensive and energy-consuming refrigeration systems, while the part that’s not superconducting (the track or the train) must be magnetic.

 

Since maglev without superconductors is a proven and not too expensive technology that consumes less energy than it presently takes to cool superconductors, until the need for cooling superconductors is eliminated, I don’t think Meissner effect levitation is good for much more than entertaining and educational science demonstrations. If a high-temperature superconductor material is ever made, and isn’t too expensive, I expect it’ll render all current maglev technologies obsolete, and make maglev trains much more feasible, as well as fun stuff like hoverboard parks – though standing on a board that provides no force against the ground in any direction is likely, I think, to be less fun than the usual kind of wheeled skateboard.

[belovelife]

question?

 

 

 

while i know that superconductors are usually cold, do you think that there are superconductors at high temperatures, like iron, increases conductivity as its temperature increases

 

if so, what effect would this have on orbiting objects and or the corona of the sun

it may sound abstract, but i am just trying to search in another direction

 

if

 

there are superconducting elements in the sun

 

then

 

it would effect the outer shell of the sun

 

 

 

while sun spots seem to keep a constant relative position

 

could this be the effect at the beginning of this thread?

 

 

 

just a question