Free suspension (levitation) of neodymium magnet

[neumanncraptoons]

Your arrangement was poorly calculated. Assuming you live in North America you realize the 45 Parrallel pulls the Earth's magnetic field off kilter 3.517 degrees for every degree you travel southeasterly...so it would off been easy to calculate the percentage of diffraction necessary to maintain the

momentum you were seeking without all the wasted effort . Or you simply could of used Newton's 32 law of magnetic free suspension.

[ymi2b]

@neumanncraptoons : Uh, yeah, I had that revelation too on the toilet this morning. Dunno if you know, but the Earth's magnetic fields do not always run from South to North Poles! The planet has areas where the fields run east to west!! (See maps on nationalatlas.gov/articles/geo­logy/a_geomag.html ) Visually on a map, Portland, Oregon lies directly north of Seattle, Washington. But, if you use a compass, north of Portland, OR is more like Yakima, WA (about 45 degrees north east).

[ymi2b]

Nitschke22: I thought a vacuum would also allow for nearly-forever spinning, but not so. As I tried to say before, the magnets' fields are stronger at some points than at other points as you rotate a mangnet(s) -- thus the stronger points attract/repel one another until the fields find a point of equilibrium. It's like saying if you roll a wheel in a vacuum it will roll forever, but the rough spots on the surface rolled upon eventually cause the wheel to stop.

[iLevitation]

This is very cool. Nice arrangement of magnets and pyrolytic carbon.

Scott

[allwrappedup123]

umm hi u sound smart so how far away would 6mm dia x 3mm Neodymium Magnets interact with eachother

[iLevitation]

You could calculate this particularly if you know the magnet strengths but it may just be more practical and straight forward to determine this empirically by attaching the magnets to lightweight fishing line and then dangling them from the ceiling and seeing how far apart they can be and yet still have a noticeable effect on each other.

Scott

[ymi2b]

Yeah, and "allwrappedup123" didn't define what he meant by "interact"... I took it to mean suspension. But as you point out, neodymium magnets can react simply from being near a power outlet in your home, let alone from the earth's own magnetic lines.

For suspension, indeed, you need empirical, yet subsequently antecdotal, experimentation. Magnets are inconsistant.. so you may purchase 2 magnets from the same batch and have slightly differing results.

[ymi2b]

For the magnetic suspension, it is the pyrolytic graphite/carbon that is the key, and it only is effective at about a maximum of 1mm...

My experience shows best results from VERY POWERFUL LARGE neodymiums trying to lift a very small neo mag that is sandwiched between pyrolytic carbon.

As you increase the size of the mag being lifted, the air gap able to be maintained between the pyrolytic carbon decreases.

[HelloUnerd]

Actually.. you made TWO spelling errors.. you diss apointing(sic) You disser,spend much time in the hood? It doesn't have two esses either! And the way you type CERTAIN words in all caps means you are an egomaniac and think we are all stupid!!! You think you are sooooo superior! Yeh, and I heard you are pretty lame at horizontal levitations as well.. mmhmm.

[HelloUnerd]

And you spelled "disappointed" incorrectly!! You only put one "p" You 'L'!!!

[AVAMagneticlev]

well done !

[ymi2b]

Update: I thought magnetic field suspensions to be virtually free of drag. NOT SO! I added a lightweight disk to the magnet and found the spin time to be about equal to simply spinning it on the tip of a needle with no magnetic assistance. Also, it's increasingly more difficult so supend with more weight. Spinning on a needle tip is better; you can do MUCH more weight and it is FAR simpler to accomplish and less influenced by the environment (breezes, temperature, etc.). I'm so dissapointed.

[MrfixitRick]

Right on! This is amazing; I didn't know it could be done.

[ymi2b]

The best results I've had is with a tiny 1/8" (3mm) cylinder neo magnet about 2mm thick: the air between it and each side's graphite was about 6mm.

Seems like with diamagnetism you only get a 1 or 2 millimeters air gap at most from the graphite.

The smaller and more powerful the floating magnet the better the results, as described initially.

I've on order much more powerful magnets, so we'll see if there is any change in effect, but I doubt it.

[variablestatus]

this is truly an incredible phenomenon your displaying, especially the sideways levitation approach you use. thanks for putting it together with your very descriptive video. 5 stars!

[ymi2b]

I next want to make a paper disk with the cylinder magnet at the center, then make small "vanes" on the outer edge of the paper, one side of each vane colored black, and see if it acts as a sun radiometer, spinning in sunlight. Normally you need a vacuum for radiometers due to air resistance, but perhaps with almost no friction in this magnetic suspension it'll work in a non-vacuum. If it works, I'll try a robust version with magnets on the outer edge of a disk & try make electricity.