From: hal@finney.org
Date: Mon Oct 15 2001 - 22:29:04 MDT
Daniel Ust writes:
> Well, regarding rail transport, a year or two ago I read an article that
> someone or some group had come across a way to use regular magnets -- room
> temperature, nonexotic materials kind -- to do the train levitation trick
> just through arranging them the right way. Anybody read about that? I'm
> having trouble finding the source... I think it was _Science Spectra_ or
> _American Scientist_, but I can't find the article in their archives...
You are probably thinking of diamagnetic levitation. I saw a demo of this
in a display case at Caltech. They use bismuth or some other material
with appropriate magnetic properties. However I don't think the effect
is stable or strong enough that it would be practical for trains.
Here is one site from a google search which has lots of pictures of
levitating magnets: http://www.fieldlines.com/other/diamag1.html.
Hal
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