But when the 190-pound visitor stood atop the 100-pound board, one gentle push was enough to send him spinning across the room over a cushion of air.
This is very poor writing since there is no "cushion of air" involved, the air is not supporting the weight of the board and rider, it's a magnetic system after all. It would probably work almost exactly the same in vacuum.
Same reporter on railgun: "And then a powerful cushion of air explodes sending the projectile at Mach 7 towards target further than any other long range weapons in use today.
Well, he is technically right. There is air underneath it, and it could be described as a cushion, albeit a poor one. Remember he's trying to explain it in terms that non-technical people will understand.
The thing is it operates nothing like a skateboard at this point. While skaters would likely have better balance, the fact that there is no lateral friction or way to control yourself means they probably wouldn't have looked much better.
I'm sure there would be a small learning curve but I am positive I could get used to it. I've done other sports that do not have much lateral friction (on water).
I do like the White box idea. I wonder though at the price where they start and if thats going to eat the profit generated. (I don't know, they could be very cheap to produce at scale.)
Does anyone know if the physics checks out? Can producing an eddy current create a repelling force that levitates? Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
I think it has been 'rediscovered' many times, but it's hard to market, since it requires a special platform to run on (even if it's just a sheet-o-metal). Sorta like how you can build a hovercraft out of a leaf blower and some plywood, but generally not used in every day life, despite the coolness. If we could have long, smooth sheets of copper laid out, I'd be pretty thrilled; might need to grab an asteriod to make it cheap enough, though.
Also, nice nick; possibly the most apropos I've seen in a while :)
It does, and saltwater isn't conductive enough. The effect degrades the lower the electrical conductivity of the medium in which eddy currents are formed. Pretty much requires something like copper or silver (or gold!) for high enough conductivity to make it work. A superconducting surface works great for this.
It should work, but less well. The conductivity of aluminum is more than half that of copper, so I would expect their 100 lb board which can hold a 190 lb person to be able to hold at least a 100 lb person.
The thickness of the metal plate also has some effect, but it is limited, and I would expect that their plate is already thick enough for additional thickness to not matter. I don't think that you can compensate enough for material conductivity with thickness, but I don't have time to research that at the moment.
I don't think you truly appreciate the ingenuity of thieves. By the way, I was just passing and wondered if you needed your driveway paving? You see, we have this extra load of asphalt that we didn't need on our last job...
The driveway scam is generally done with stolen asphalt from roadway construction. I know this from a professional con artist who has had a long career in this kind of shenanigans.
Yeah, that lowers cost considerably. Copper is attractive even when it needs to be cut out of signal cables. The Norwegian railroad authority is switching to aluminum cables in certain parts of the country to avoid it.
In England there is a scam where builders go door to door offering to fix your driveway. Part of the scam is offering to do it cheap because they have some left over asphalt from a large job and it needs to be used quick.
They then do a terrible job with the stolen asphalt, but cosmetically it looks okay so the householder pays and the crooks leave.
If it is impossible to steer a device like this, explain the whitebox+ with directional control from your smartphone that they are offering.
The thing works on repulsive eddy forces that always oppose the field you create. If you angle the field, you should get lateral forces.
edit - thinking about it, you do not have to angle the field, you just need to move it. Also, if you move the device it should automatically resist the motion due to the currents created. With some accelerometers feeding back into controlling the motion of the field, it should be even be possible to give the device what feel like edges to make it behave like a snowboard.
Now that their kickstarter is up, people are already streaming in to back it. I bet most of them will completely gloss over this gem of a sentence: "Currently, this surface needs to be a non-ferromagnetic conductor."
While it does have some applications even with that limitation, it's far from a practical hoverboard, and it's very misleading to be talking about other uses of the technology as if it already exists. They seem to be getting ahead of themselves by extolling their "design focus" when they don't have the product people expect from them yet, and possibly (probably) never will.
41 comments
[ 0.14 ms ] story [ 104 ms ] threadBut when the 190-pound visitor stood atop the 100-pound board, one gentle push was enough to send him spinning across the room over a cushion of air.
This is very poor writing since there is no "cushion of air" involved, the air is not supporting the weight of the board and rider, it's a magnetic system after all. It would probably work almost exactly the same in vacuum.
I hereby offer my balance, free of charge if you need someone :)
Still a cool prototype though.
I do like the White box idea. I wonder though at the price where they start and if thats going to eat the profit generated. (I don't know, they could be very cheap to produce at scale.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current
Also, nice nick; possibly the most apropos I've seen in a while :)
http://youtu.be/keMpUaoA3Tg
Copper is a bit expensive! I'd love to know where to get a bit of pipe like that.
The thickness of the metal plate also has some effect, but it is limited, and I would expect that their plate is already thick enough for additional thickness to not matter. I don't think that you can compensate enough for material conductivity with thickness, but I don't have time to research that at the moment.
How disappointing...
http://www.jetcatusa.com/p60.html
In England there is a scam where builders go door to door offering to fix your driveway. Part of the scam is offering to do it cheap because they have some left over asphalt from a large job and it needs to be used quick.
They then do a terrible job with the stolen asphalt, but cosmetically it looks okay so the householder pays and the crooks leave.
The thing works on repulsive eddy forces that always oppose the field you create. If you angle the field, you should get lateral forces.
edit - thinking about it, you do not have to angle the field, you just need to move it. Also, if you move the device it should automatically resist the motion due to the currents created. With some accelerometers feeding back into controlling the motion of the field, it should be even be possible to give the device what feel like edges to make it behave like a snowboard.
While it does have some applications even with that limitation, it's far from a practical hoverboard, and it's very misleading to be talking about other uses of the technology as if it already exists. They seem to be getting ahead of themselves by extolling their "design focus" when they don't have the product people expect from them yet, and possibly (probably) never will.