Levitate Me!

[enoch]

Forget a yogi bouncing around on his backside, levitation may soon be available to all of us.

Researchers Martin Tajmar and his team based in Austria have discovered that gravitomagnetism is a trillion times stronger when generated by a spinning superconductor.

Aswell as this discovery pointing towards a new quantum theory of gravity it also makes possible the stuff of sci-fi: a general purpose force field!!

I quote from this week's New Scientist magazine: "Let you imagination run wild: a gravitomagnetic device could levitate cars, create zero-g playgrounds, tractor beams to pull objects towards you and glassless windows that use the repulsive fields to prevent things passing through.

Times they are a changin'


A brief background to gravitomagnetism:-

We don't feel gravitomagnetism as we go about our everyday lives on Earth, but according to Einstein's theory of General Relativity it's real. When a planet (or a star or a black hole ... or anything massive) spins it pulls space and time around with it, an action known as "frame dragging." The fabric of spacetime twists like a vortex. Einstein tells us that all gravitational forces correspond to a bending of spacetime; the "twist" is gravitomagnetism.

What does gravitomagnetism do? "It can make the orbits of satellites precess," says Will, "and it would cause a gyroscope placed in Earth orbit to wobble." Both effects are small and difficult to measure.

There's an article in Time this week about new inventions which features a levitating bed that uses similar technology? I think? Anyway, the thing floats above the floor and is lightly tethered on all four corners, it can even support up to 2000 lbs. Crazy stuff. They say the magnetic field is safe for sleepers, but to take off your earings when vacuuming under the bed, lol.

[enoch]

ooo...what about 'other' piercings??

ooo...what about 'other' piercings??

LOL, OMG Enoch!!!

[wstein]

ooo...what about 'other' piercings??

Better take those out too (or start a line of non-magnetic ones). A Million times greater is too much even for you

[oath]

This has been out for years, Its how bullet trains are powered. Apparently the biggest difficulty with it all is that they have to cool or chill the superconducter, in which they are avidly searching for one that can operate at room temperature.

[enoch]

Bullet trains use repelling magnets.

[oath]

Bullet trains use repelling magnets.

Whats the difference? Both are considered magnetic and probably employ the use of some kind of magnet. Im guessing this isnt much different than the circular (vortex) order iron shavings take when placed around a magnet.

[enoch]

well, without the ins and outs, in the context of this topic - gravitomagnetism could push, pull, levitate any object regardless of its composition, electrical charge or shape - including us folks!

Electromagnetism is deemed a kind of "false gravity" because Einstein theorised gravity to be a warping of space-time created by mass which creates a vortex. The gravitomagnetism is a frame-dragging vortex created by a spinning mass. It's so weak but for some reason seems to be a trillion times stronger generated from a superconductor...hence the excitement.

[journyman161]

I had a read of the article in New Scientist. Interestingly, it could fit in rather nicely with Edward Leedskalnin's theory about magnets in everything - at first read anyway.

Perhaps this is further evidence that Relativity isn't quite up to things; one of the main props for Relativity has been the Michelson-Morley experiments that supposedly showed there was no 'Ether' throughout all space - the reports of the failure to find an ether appear to have been rather exaggerated. And the presence of an ether invalidate some of the main pillars of Relativity.

I'm not sure how electromagnetics will fit into an ether-filled cosmos but it's something to think about for explanations...