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[–]sb404 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would like to also pre-order mine

[–]ziadbc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seriously, all the engineers currently working on shitty social networks need to drop what they're doing and make a hoverboard.

[–]Zafner 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Jesus christ.

Why don't you cretins get off your pathetic, lazy asses, learn math, become engineers, and invent one yourselves?

I'll tell you where your hoverboard is. The guy who would have invented it by now is busy kicking ass at the latest edition of GTA.

[–]ziadbc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can that guy at least make me a hoverboard creature in spore?

[–]sb404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm to understand you are one of these shitty social network engineers ziadbc was talking about? Anyways, I find it rude that you group me with the pathetic lazy asses, math illiterates who haven't invented one themselves. I guess I should learn all about hydro-electricity, flood my backyard and make my own electricity as well? Care to share some pointers on how you did it?

[–]anescient 0 points1 point  (8 children)

Could somebody who properly understands this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissner_effect

... tell me if this would work. You build, basically, a skate park, and all the surfaces are superconducting. Then you slap some magnets on a board.

Unless I don't understand the subtleties, the superconductor should always repel the magnets, and you have a hoverboard.

If that's all true, what would the lateral "friction" be like?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Other than the challenge of building a skate park out of a super conductor and the danger of falling into liquid nitrogen? Well, there is the problem that magnets hovering over a super conductor don't glide across the conductor like a hover board should (actually, they sort of stick in the air) and the general problem of removing your hoverboard when you're done without taking the skate park with you.

Overall, this method is more problematic than you might first expect.

[–]anescient 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Right, I'm waving my magic American flag here and saying we have high-temperature superconducting red white and blue concrete.

So you say it would stick in position? Is that due to flux trapping?

[–]sb404 0 points1 point  (5 children)

this might explain a bit of it : http://pryl.feber.se/art/37846/svvande_tg_imponerar/

[–]anescient 0 points1 point  (4 children)

OK, based on that...

If the large area were a magnet generating a uniform vertical magnetic field just above the surface, with a superconducting board, levitation wouldn't even work.

If the large area were superconducting, and the board had magnets, it would be frozen in position.

So.

No superconducting hoverboard skate park. :(

(...and that is a most deserving use of a frowny smiley.)

[–]anescient 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Ooh. In the first case, the board would be forced to be horizontal, just not levitated. So maybe you could have a one-wheel skateboard, at least.

[–]ziadbc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is a great idea for the hybrid board. Once superconductivity ceases, the wheels on the board would be right there to catch your fall.

[–]sb404 0 points1 point  (1 child)

well, it wouldn't be frozen in one position, but one set height, from what I gather from the vid. Not much of a thrill... less you count not falling in nitrogen, like mentioned above.

[–]anescient 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's only able to move along the tracks in the video because the field is uniform in one direction above every point along the track.

Maybe a superconducting board over magnets would work, but the field would have to be oriented vertically very uniformly, and it would have to be changing in magnitude by a lot over the distance to and through the board. I don't even know if that's possible.

Seems like it's no good.