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Re: Levitation without Diamagnetics



At 6:54 PM -0500 6/28/00, brian whatcott wrote:
I am so far behind the times that I can still remember claiming not
so many years ago on a newsgroup, that a static magnetic suspension
in free air was not possible.

I have of course heard of the recent methods featuring a
superconductive magnet, and a diamagnetic barrier etc., etc.

But I wasn't prepared to see a toy implementation of a five
degrees of freedom suspension, of which only one (on the
horizontal axis) - is material.

I was pleased to find this toy on offer under $5.
It featured a bobbin suspended horizontal on two pairs of magnets,
and restrained against horizontal displacement to one end with a ball
point on one end of the bobbin, bearing on a little vertical glass plate.

A colleague here made a simple cheap one by putting doughnut magnets on a
pencil and some more below on the stand (which attaches to the vertical
endpiece for the pencil tip).

Larry