Ian Charnas

Superconducting Levitator

Superconducting Levitator floating around track
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Oh my god it floats

Watch this video to see the science demonstration I orchestrated when Adam Savage from Mythbusters visited the makerspace I helped start. 

In this demonstration of quantum levitation, we cooled a YCBO superconductor with liquid Nitrogen before hiding it inside a Millennium Falcon model and sending it flying around a magnetic track, leaving a wake of blue energy fields behind it. 

Video of Adam Savage's Visit

My role in all of this

When I heard Adam Savage was going to visit, I knew we had to do something special. I also knew it might be my only opportunity to use the phrase “quantum levitation” in a project. The next step seemed fairly obvious.

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Credits

Marcus Brathwaite, Ainsley Buckner, Emily Buckner, Nathan Clark, Chris Dickey, Ben Guengerich, Ben Horvat, John Kasunich, Ray Krajci, Stephanie Lee, Terry Metter, Molly Murray, Taylor Nagy, Marshall Nill, Kailey Shara, Crystin Stoll, Michael Twieg, and Minh Vannuyen
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