CNN Says U.S. has Anti-Gravity

[Zolar V]

nice explanation, i was going to say some thing similar to that order tomorrow by 1300

[John Phoenix]

Ok. "Metallic" is not the issue. There's ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, and diamagnetic. Ferromagnetic is things like iron (hence the name), which in the presence of magnetic fields form "permanent" magnets that retain a magnetic field of their own. Paramagnetic materials attract and concentrate magnetic fields they're in, and diamagnetic materials repel and disperse them. This results in real forces on these objects in the presence of magnetic fields. What this means is that almost anything is going to be attracted or repelled in the presence of a magnetic field, although for most things this attraction/repulsion will be very weak.

 

As it happens, water is weakly diamagnetic, and hence, since living things are mostly water, so are we. And so in the presence of an extremely strong magnetic field, there will be repulsion. That's how the frog is "levitated." There is nothing special about the magnetic field, just that it's very very strong in order to be able to lift something like a frog with such an ordinarily weak effect.

 

Well, you have shown you can pick apart my statement rather nicely and throw in a bunch of interesting things. I now know of many different type of magnets or things with different magnetic properties and how they may or may not relate to my question. Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge.

 

But that speaks nothing of the actual answer.

 

Again - Does anyone know of any practical application for this technology and what advancements they have made to it since the floating frog experiment?

 

Since it seems no one around here has very much of an imagination, I will help you jog yours.

 

We have an object - not necessarily made of metal that we can suspend in a strong magnetic field. What can we do with it?

 

First thing that comes to my mind is we have eliminated friction. (unless the magnetic field holds the object firmly in place where it cannot move or spin, but I have not heard if this is the case or not.)

 

What object or objects can we put into this magnetic field that would benefit from the absence of friction?

 

If we could design frictionless tools what sorts of tools could they be?

 

Do you see where I am going with this thinking? I am sure the absence of friction is just one side benefit to suspending things in such a strong magnetic field.

 

You guys claim to be scientists. I am rather shocked an dismayed that tons of you didn't jump at the chance to postulate possible things we could use this technology for.

 

But I think I know what you will do. You will say, Why even think about it because it takes huge amounts of energy to levitate something in a strong magnetic field it will never be practical. - To those who think this may I remind you of Moores Law. What is impossible today may be possible a year from now. It is never too early to throw out some ideas and have them in place when the technology catches up with you.

 

So I ask again:

 

Does anyone know of any practical application for this technology and what advancements they have made to it since the floating frog experiment?

[Moontanman]

Uh, mag lev trains come to mind.

[Sisyphus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamagnetism#Diamagnetic_levitation

[swansont]

Magnetic bearings already exist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing

 

However, these are not diamagnetic. The problem with diamagnetic materials is that the effect is weak, and not present in many materials that are particularly useful for fabricating objects.

 

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/tables/magprop.html

 

So you need really strong fields, which is going to be costly.

 

You guys claim to be scientists. I am rather shocked an dismayed that tons of you didn't jump at the chance to postulate possible things we could use this technology for.

 

But I think I know what you will do. You will say, Why even think about it because it takes huge amounts of energy to levitate something in a strong magnetic field it will never be practical. - To those who think this may I remind you of Moores Law. What is impossible today may be possible a year from now. It is never too early to throw out some ideas and have them in place when the technology catches up with you.

 

So I ask again:

 

Does anyone know of any practical application for this technology and what advancements they have made to it since the floating frog experiment?

 

How does Moore's law apply to this? Does Moore's law apply in general? I'd really love it for lots of different technologies to be doubling in capability every ~18 months without an increase in cost. But unless the magnetic levitation technology depends lithography (and related) techniques, this sounds like a strawman.

 

A lack of response could be indicative of nobody knowing any applications. Your "shock and dismay" presupposes that these applications exist, and you might want to re-think the strategy of admonishing the people from whom you are requesting input. That may work for a captive audience, but not so much for voluntary participation.

[Mr Skeptic]

First thing that comes to my mind is we have eliminated friction. (unless the magnetic field holds the object firmly in place where it cannot move or spin, but I have not heard if this is the case or not.)

 

For the most part, yes. There will still be air friction and there can be a form of friction due to the interactions with the magnetic field. And of course they will still have friction if something is touching them.

 

But I think I know what you will do. You will say, Why even think about it because it takes huge amounts of energy to levitate something in a strong magnetic field it will never be practical. - To those who think this may I remind you of Moores Law. What is impossible today may be possible a year from now. It is never too early to throw out some ideas and have them in place when the technology catches up with you.

 

Good guess! Why use diamagnetism when an opposing magnetic field would be orders of magnitude stronger?

 

And what does having more transistors have to do with a magnetic field?

[John Phoenix]

Magnetic bearings already exist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing

 

How does Moore's law apply to this?

 

A lack of response could be indicative of nobody knowing any applications. Your "shock and dismay" presupposes that these applications exist, - That may work for a captive audience, but not so much for voluntary participation.

 

Well at least that's a little better folks.

 

1st point: Yeah your right.. Moores law only applies in the since that if computer processing power can double every 18 months then possibly so could other related technology. - it was a stretch but I think you got what I was trying to say.

 

2nd Point: I realize no one may actually know any applications and you guys are not exactly a captive audience - that's the point.. I was bombing out there! - Work with me here. The sensationalism did help to get a few more responses - GRIN

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Merged post follows:

Consecutive posts merged

Why use diamagnetism when an opposing magnetic field would be orders of magnitude stronger?

 

Yeah but that only works with opposing forces between two metallic magnets does it not?

 

I was trying to think of things where we could have uses for suspended objects that were not metallic. I realize this field would be a lot stronger to make this happen and due to size of equipment involved may not be too practical today. i wanted to see what you guys could come up with that we maybe could see possible in the future.

[Sisyphus]

Again, metallic is irrelevant. Materials have ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, or diamagnetic properties. You can "levitate" water because water is slightly diamagnetic, which means it repels and is repelled by magnetic fields. Diamagnetism lends itself to stable "levitation" because a diamagnetic object will seek a point of minimum magnetic field strength, which can be in empty space (unlike a point of maximum field strength). The problem is that there aren't many strongly diamagnetic materials. And of course you can't just make things diamagnetic, so it's not terribly useful.

 

Superconductors, however, are basically perfect diamagnets. However, we have not yet been able to create any materials that are superconducting at any but extremely cold temperatures. (And if we could, there would be much greater benefits than just a better maglev train.)

[jake.com]

(And if we could, there would be much greater benefits than just a better maglev train.)

 

such as? I'm not being facetious, i am legitimately interested.

[Zolar V]

 

But that speaks nothing of the actual answer.

 

Again - Does anyone know of any practical application for this technology and what advancements they have made to it since the floating frog experiment?

no, i will explain later

 

Since it seems no one around here has very much of an imagination, I will help you jog yours.

 

We have an object - not necessarily made of metal that we can suspend in a strong magnetic field. What can we do with it?

nothing really

First thing that comes to my mind is we have eliminated friction. (unless the magnetic field holds the object firmly in place where it cannot move or spin, but I have not heard if this is the case or not.)

 

What object or objects can we put into this magnetic field that would benefit from the absence of friction?

none really, again will address later

If we could design frictionless tools what sorts of tools could they be?

none

Do you see where I am going with this thinking? I am sure the absence of friction is just one side benefit to suspending things in such a strong magnetic field.

 

You guys claim to be scientists. I am rather shocked an dismayed that tons of you didn't jump at the chance to postulate possible things we could use this technology for.

 

But I think I know what you will do. You will say, Why even think about it because it takes huge amounts of energy to levitate something in a strong magnetic field it will never be practical. - To those who think this may I remind you of Moores Law. What is impossible today may be possible a year from now. It is never too early to throw out some ideas and have them in place when the technology catches up with you.

 

So I ask again:

 

Does anyone know of any practical application for this technology and what advancements they have made to it since the floating frog experiment?

 

i hate to be redundant but no, there really isn't anything useful from using huge magnetic fields to float a non metallic particle.

the main reason in this is THE APPARATUS TO CAUSE THE EXTREME ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD IS HUGE, and the energy consumption is gigantic.

And if that does not convince you then, along with that you have virtually no means to manipulate the object in question. and any object you try to manipulate with the object in the field would be affected by the field.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Zolar V

[Sisyphus]

such as? I'm not being facetious, i am legitimately interested.

 

100% efficient power transmission, for one thing. Generate electricity anywhere and use it anywhere with no losses. And just generally improve the efficiency of any electrical device you put it in. Plus, all the stuff that uses superconductors already would be a lot easier to build, since it wouldn't involve keeping components chilled to 30K or whatever.