Dangerous High-speed Magnetic Levitation Maglev

SlikBaller Says:

Nov 7, 2009 - "it would eat his arm. Probably all the way up to his shoulder." haha

TheWesternWanderer Says:

Nov 8, 2009 - Earth Magnets

Chrenas Says:

Nov 9, 2009 - eat your arm all the arm all the way up to the shoulder lol what a hillarious bullshit :D

ratheads Says:

Nov 9, 2009 - That would eat my arm all the way to the pinkie.

KingLutherQ Says:

Nov 9, 2009 - why dont you just make a spinning copper disk. Its safer.

Skelamarc Says:

Nov 11, 2009 - that was sick

mojokiss Says:

Nov 12, 2009 - cool stuff! gear that shit down!

oOoxelAoOo Says:

Nov 12, 2009 - Very cool, although it does look fantastically dangerous.

Spideekid Says:

Nov 13, 2009 - your mad

uberstupidmove Says:

Nov 14, 2009 - Very cool, Good idea with the plastic around the copper that is useful for saving arms.

metalhanded Says:

Nov 14, 2009 - drop a snake in tail first.

lifeisnow13 Says:

Nov 15, 2009 - A genious but now to find a use for it in the world now

Dylan5646 Says:

Nov 15, 2009 - Fantastic! Try higher RPM's and larger loads... Might bring realism to "Hover Cars" One word summary: Genius!

matthewzzxc Says:

Nov 16, 2009 - this is not safeXD

larryllix Says:

Nov 17, 2009 - Nice demo! Nothing dangerous about this. The shields are ingenius and the motor does not have the power to damage a human much. The inertia may eat your finger though, if the shields were not in place. Larger tubes or discs may give better surface speed and with discs the bearing arrangement would be easier but hard to balance the levitated item.

darthmarth28 Says:

Nov 17, 2009 - I'm planning to do this as a demonstration of Lenz's law at my school's technology fair, does anyone have tips on how to optimize this effect? Would the length, thickness, or diameter of the pipe affect how fast it needs to spin? Do the pipes need high torque with their high speed? Where can I find plastic to make shields like that? If anyone can answer any of the above questions or any ideas on how to improve the demo in the video, please reply!

honge94 Says:

Nov 18, 2009 - sorry but it's floating in the magnetic field even water? by stafano italy..

wbeaty Says:

Nov 18, 2009 - anyone have tips Read the website? It would be improved by nonmagnetic ball bearings. The copper needs to be solid rods or extremely thickwall tubes, but they don't need to be 12" long. Perform dynamic balancing of the bars to make it much quieter. With a faster, larger motor you could use aluminum instead of copper. If you used a lathe to carve a shallow ring out of one or both tubes, magnets might stop at that missing ring of metal and hover without sliding off endwise.

wbeaty Says:

Nov 18, 2009 - Buy 1/16 acrylic scraps at Tap Plastics, or a glass window shop, or check yellow pages. Motor torque is important, and a smaller motor won't work (hovering magnets slow down the RPM too much) There might be an improved pulley-ratio that gives higher levitation. I just stuck a random pulley on the motor. Try 20% larger or smaller pulley diameter. The goal is to match the mechanical impedance (torque/RPM) of the levitator to that small feeble motor.

darthmarth28 Says:

Nov 18, 2009 - thanks for the tips, but I have one further question. I was going over this with my friends in class today, and we came up with a crazy idea that might just work. What would happen if a soft iron core was put inside the spinning copper tubes? That should boost the magnetic field many times over and lessen the need for the dangerously high speeds or thick copper tubes. Do you think it could work?

wbeaty Says:

Nov 18, 2009 - soft iron core It's an AC effect, so you'd want to use powdered iron or ferrite, to prevent eddy currents from shielding the interior from the changing fields. So... a thin copper pipe filled with iron powder, that might work as well as a thick copper pipe. But also the magnet is attracted to the iron, so I don't know.

looseben Says:

Nov 19, 2009 - Mr tell me when it works for non-metal things too

TheBunnstar Says:

Nov 20, 2009 - i thought he said it would cut his hand to his albow when he touched it

VBH8888 Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - lol id love to see one get lose and shoot into the wall lol

MrMarkos Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Just a thought... Moving copper through a magnetic field creates electricity. what would happen if you put magnets inside the pipe and rotated them at high speed.