What is Magnetic levitation: Definition and 41 Discussions

Magnetic levitation (maglev) or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational acceleration and any other accelerations.
The two primary issues involved in magnetic levitation are lifting forces: providing an upward force sufficient to counteract gravity, and stability: ensuring that the system does not spontaneously slide or flip into a configuration where the lift is neutralized.
Magnetic levitation is used for maglev trains, contactless melting, magnetic bearings and for product display purposes.

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  1. SBrownJC

    EE: How to heat a magnet with a wire while levitating a superconductor?

    Hi I'm doing my extended essay (like a research paper) for the IB and I'm having a bit of trouble with my setup and data process. The plan for my experiment goes something like this: I have a magnet wrapped in wire strapped to a battery and a superconductor in liquid nitrogen. After levitating...
  2. M

    What are the key considerations for designing an Inductrack highway system?

    Summary:: I have to show to my university class an innovative feasible project. It's about new generation Highways, based on the Inductrack model. There are a lot of questions that I have to ask to know if it's a feasible project, so if there is someone patient that have time to answer all my...
  3. SBrownJC

    B Do materials surrounding magnets affect how superconductors levitate?

    I'm currently doing an experiment with magnetic levitation but I don't know if my independent variable will even affect my results at all. I am planning on building a rail of magnets and levitating a type 2 superconductor on it. I wanted to change the material surrounding the rail of magnets...
  4. Woomir

    I Why is my magnetic levitation experiment not working?

    [Mentor Note -- Two similar thread starts merged into one] Hey all, I have been working on this project for a while now, which features suspending an object midair through the use of magnetic levitation principles. Cool right? And so I have been researching and trying, even finding ground...
  5. H

    Magnetic levitation board not working

    Hi. I'm designing a magnetic levitation board based on schematics attached herewith. However it does not levitate the magnet. Plz note Q1 is P channel MOSFET. Also note that I used coil L1 as X1 & X2 and coil L2 as Y1 & Y2. Where Xs and Ys represents horizontal & vertical directions...
  6. jaumzaum

    Questions about magnetic levitation of a Thompson Ring

    The Thompson jumping ring experiment consists in an AC supply connected to a coil with a metal steel core inside. A metal ring is placed around the core. When the AC supply is turned on, the ring suddenly jumps and after a time it starts levitating in a fixed height. I'm a little confused about...
  7. A

    Magnetic levitation of a ball within a transparent tube

    Hi, after reading much interesting information on the subject I want to made a small project, the idea is to have a transparent plexiglass tube and a (diamagnetic?) material ball within the tube and to have permanent magnets outside the tube in such a way that I can suspend the ball so that it...
  8. J

    Magnetic Levitation (electromagnets?) for an 11th grader

    I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but I am very lost as of right now. I am doing my 11th grade physics project on magnetic levitation. From what I can understand, there are 2 "main" types of magnetic levitation, them being with superconductors and with electromagnets. For the...
  9. M

    Magnetic levitation with permanent magnets

    so i am literally one step away from producing a floating skateboard powered by permanent magnets, so here's what i wanted to check, to make sure I haven't missed anything obvious vertical lift achieved by using vertical repelling fields rotational motion is controlled by counterbalancing the...
  10. jackwhirl

    News SciFi Inspired Technologies Becoming Real; Turbolift

    In tech news, ThyssenKrupp has invented the turbolift. I'm excited to see it implemented. Hopefully it won't take too long to catch on. Unfortunately, I'm not often in buildings tall enough to benefit from this technology.
  11. KC Kian Chong

    Magnetic Levitation for Fragrance Dispenser | Product Design

    Hi everyone, I'm a student who is currently majoring in product design. Therefore, pardon me for not having any physics knowledge but I'm really appreciate for your help ! I wanted to come out with a fragrance dispenser by using magnetic levitation. I've watched a lots of videos but I don't...
  12. D

    Help artist with magnetic levitation

    Hello all! Im a young sculptor from croatia on my last year of sculpting... I am planning in making this element that will levitate and have a rough blueprint for you to tell me would it roughly work... the setup is ready for experimenting but the basic physics arent clear to me... did i...
  13. astro_chara

    Tips for Building a Magnetic Levitator: A High School Physics Project

    Hi, recently I've been trying to think of a few ideas for my high school physics/astronomy club to build, and have heard that a magnetic leviator is completely doable. Are there any tips out there for building one? Materials, circuits, etc would help a whole lot. Thanks.
  14. J

    Energy expended during magnetic levitation?

    Two magnets, like poles facing, will "levitate". And they seem happy to do that forever. In common experience, it takes energy to jump, an airplane to generate thrust to convert to lift, or a helicopter to hover. "Hovering" for the local TV newscopter, or a SpaceX rocket is an energy...
  15. S

    Magnetic levitation - superconductors

    The question I have is rather simple and straightforward so here it is: How much weight can a magnet support and still levitate above a superconductor? We all know about super fast levitating trains and I want to use the same idea for something else. However before looking deeper into magnetic...
  16. pioneerboy

    Designing an Electromagnetic Levitation System: Challenges and Considerations

    Hi there, I am thinking about an electromagnetic levitation project. Imagine a tube of about 13cm diameter with a flat rotation-symmetrical object of maybe 4cm diameter at one of its ends. The object should be oriented always perpendicular to the vertical tube...difficult to explain as I don't...
  17. N

    Calculating Magnetic Levitation Strength for a 1kg Object

    Hi all, Newbie here.. I am interested in making a magnetic leviation display like in this video: My question is what are the necessary setups? I know that I would need a strong magnet like neodymium magnet. But, i have no idea about the formula. Let's say i want to levitate a 1kg object, how...
  18. S

    Magnetic levitation using eddy current

    Hi, I am working on an experiment to investigate the effect of electrical conductivity of the metals on the levitating force produced. Basically the concept is this: when a metal plate is placed on top of a solenoid (but not touching), as the a.c. flows in the solenoid the change in magnetic...
  19. GoldWing

    Magnetic Levitation magnitude of current

    Homework Statement Three long parallel wires are a distance L = 5.71 cm from one another. (Looking at them, they are at three corners of an equilateral triangle.) The top wire has a diameter of 1.8 mm and is made of copper; it is suspended in air due to the magnetic forces from the bottom two...
  20. M

    Magnetic Levitation : Confusion with Lenz's Law

    Considering the above diagram, I am failing to see why the aluminium ring floats upwards rather than oscillates. I understand Faraday's law, but I am struggling with Lenz's law - as there is an alternating current, an alternating magnetic field is produced, similar to a sine wave. Therefore, I...
  21. A

    Magnetic Levitation: Solving for Current I

    Homework Statement A straight 2.34-mm-diameter copper wire can just 'float' horizontally in air because of the force of the Earth's magnetic field B, which is horizontal, perpendicular to the wire, and of magnitude 5 × 10-5 T. What current I does the wire carry? (The density of copper is 8.96...
  22. Spock

    Can centripetal/centrifugal force raise itself

    So my question is, if a laithwaite engine (my attached photo) spins fast enough, will it be able to lift off the ground? And if yes, what's the maths to calculate the speed needed to make it lift?
  23. Paul J. Daniels

    Eliminating use for lubrication in an engine?

    I apologize if this is not the right forum to post a question like this... Would the use of a magnetic field(using magnetic levitation) to keep the parts separated, prevent the need for a lubricant, in and internal combustion hydrogen engine?? Also, how much voltage, and how many amps do you...
  24. S

    Magnetic levitation using alternating current

    Hi, I have a few questions regarding magnetic levitation achieved by using alternating current to induce eddy current on a non-ferromagnetic conductor plate to provide the levitation force. 1. Can it be stabilized? If yes, in what ways? 2. Are there any equations/formulae or ways to calculate...
  25. D

    Magnetic Levitation: Design w/ Neodymium & Electric Magnets

    Hey guys, How do I make a levitation module with neodymium and electric magnets? If u have any ideas or can help me with information or a design, please leave a comment below, I would greatly appreciate it. THX
  26. J

    Meissner effect and conservation of momentum in magnetic levitation

    I was recently reading about the Meissner effect, in which certain superconductors are able to "exclude" any external magnetic field lines from their interior, as seen in the right half of this diagram: I understand that some superconductors exhibit a sort of imperfect Meissner effect in...
  27. Anoop Koushik

    Building powerful magnetic levitation device

    I want to have a powerful magnetic levitation device as an attraction for college fest and also as my first big project! So I need to know how to start with it. I need to workout with all theory parts before I start building it ! Where to start from?
  28. D

    Calculating the requirements for magnetic levitation

    Hi everyone, I am interested in using an electromagnet to repel a permanent magnet and lift it up, and I am thinking about how to go about calculating the required magnetic field strength of the electromagnet for this operation. I have attached a rough conceptual drawing showing the...
  29. F

    Current flow and speed control in magnetic Levitation

    Hello, I'm working on obtaining an equation that will help me model the behavior of velocity as a response to the current flowing to a coil in a MagLev. I have tried to relate momentum and electromagnetic momentum: m*v=F*Δt F=q(E+ v X B) V= (q(E+ v X B) Δt)/m Am I going the right...
  30. D

    Magnetic levitation of vehicles vs anti-gravity

    I'm trying to provide a simple technology for vehicles to float above the ground in a sci-fi story I'm writing. Star Wars landspeeders use anti-gravity, which I suppose I could use as well. It's not unique to Star Wars, although it was popularized by that saga and I was hoping to do something...
  31. D

    Analytical equation for Magnetic Levitation

    Hello everyone, So I've stumped uppon some problems during my project. It is not my homework or anything, so I didn't post it there. I've built a magnetic levitation system, which could lift up to 2kg. The problem is, that we cannot regulate the vertical position of the item. But that can...
  32. H

    Magnetic Levitation energy problem

    OK, this'll be my first post here. I was writing on a topic about magnetism when I realized that I simply don't know enough to answer the question effectively. The question is, How much energy does it take to magnetically levitate a 180.0 kg mass using the Earth's gravitational field...
  33. J

    Why Does the Aluminum Ring Hover Unsteadily in a Magnetic Levitation Experiment?

    Homework Statement see attachment Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution ok, so clearly an emf will be induced in the aluminium ring as the alternating current produces a magnetic field. The induced emf will be equal to the rate of change of emf (which will vary with time...
  34. P

    Applications of magnetic levitation

    i am a high school student and have designed a magnetic levitation system for my school science fair. The circuit used is: http://uzzors2k.4hv.org/projectfiles/magneticlevitator/Magnetic%20Levitator%20circuit.GIF However, i would like to scale up the project and find some REAL WORLD...
  35. J

    Question on magnetic levitation project.

    Hello everyone! My apologies if i am not posting in the correct subforum. I have a couple questions on an art project i am getting ready to start on, and was not able to find what I was looking for. I am new to this board and should let you all know right now that I failed high school...
  36. T

    Making a Magnetic Levitation Train

    I would like to make a maglev train for a physics project, but I would prefer it to be simple and for the most part easy to make, as I do not have access to too many supplies. Hopefully, you can help me generate a list of possible ideas with brief explanations on how to construct them and how...
  37. H

    The commercial toy, Levitron, can achieve stable magnetic levitation

    The commercial toy, Levitron, can achieve stable magnetic levitation due to gyroscopic stabilization and axis precesion. The Levitron toy sold in market has a vertical spinning axis, and so far I have not found a variation with horizontal axis. Is it allowed in Earnshaw's theorem, for a...
  38. S

    Maximizing Magnetic Levitation: Factors Affecting Ring Height Experiment

    In an experiment I am carrying out I am levitating metal rings using a solenoid with a clamp stand going through the solenoid acting as a support for the ring and a core for the solenoid (seen in the attachment). I have one simple question? Theorectically, should an Aluminium or Copper ring...
  39. D

    Magnetic levitation and suspension

    I was watching a video on youtube which showed how superconductors worked in magnetic levitation, and something struck me, the effect of magnetic levitation and suspension, where the magnet is both attracting and repelling at the same time thus keeping the superconductor at the same distance...
  40. BasketDaN

    Mechanical Steel vs. Magnetic Levitation Composite Flywheels?

    Spinning at their respective maximum velocities, approximately how much more energy will an ideal composite flywheel (magnetically levitated in a vaccum) be able to store than an ideal ball bearing steel alloy flywheel of the same size and shape? Thanks.
  41. L

    Build a Maglev= (Magnetic levitation) train for a science project

    Hi there, I need to build a Maglev= (Magnetic levitation) train for a science project. I already build a track with coils and permanent magnets, but unfortunately my teacher doesn't know which computer program is suitable to switch the current whenever it's needed along with the north and...
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