I’ve never seen “current” verbed like that, but it’s nice to know Eddy does whatever it is.
Next you’ll be telling us he’s in the space-time continuum.
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Use the perpetual motion generator I helped kickstart to power the hoverboard.
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I’m confused. I kept scrolling up and down through the pledge levels and couldn’t find where I could get myself a Pit Bull.
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How does Earnshaw’s theorem apply to this? I thought it implied that stable magnetic levitation is only possible with either diamagnetic materials (aluminum is paramagnetic), which tend to have very weak repulsion except for superconductors, or with some kind of active feedback system with electronic sensors that constantly adjust the magnetic field in response to movements to prevent the magnet from flipping over. Do you think Hendo is using the latter or is my understanding incorrect?
By treating carpool lanes with conductive surfaces, hover vehicles could offer “the freedom of a car and the efficiency of a train.”
I’m sorry, but how exactly? A train is efficient because it carries large numbers of people in a small space, usually with its own dedicated right of way. A conductive surface on a carpool lane does none of those things. The only conceivable efficiency gain hovercars (not flying cars) would have over regular cars is less surface friction. That benefit however would almost certainly be countered by longer breaking distances, which would require hovercars being further spaced than their wheeled counterparts, as you know surface friction is pretty damn important to breaking.
By turning the sky green, humans will be happier as the sky will offer “the colour of the trees, and the size of the horizon!”.
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Is Biff wearing a FSM pasta strainer on his head? Maybe that movie really did predict the future.
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Couldn’t they just have some parts that drop down and create friction with the road any time the brake is hit, then retract back up when you take your foot off the brake? And I don’t know how much eliminating friction with the road (though not air resistance) when not braking would subtract from a car’s fuel efficiency, but I’d guess it’d be substantial.
They could parts that drop down, or the hovering could even stop and the whole vehicle could drop. This is true.
Fuel efficiency might improve dramatically. That’s a very narrow measure of efficiency though, it still does nothing for congestion, speed, right of way, passenger load, etc.
Cannot resist…“Dear Science”…where is my hoverboard?
Kickstarter Seth!
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I was in Seattle one winter when all the roads froze over with a thin sheet of black ice, essential reducing the friction of the roads dramatically, and I have to tell you those cars certainly were free!!! the tree outside of my office building was hit 15 times in 2 hours. free…weeeeeeeee!
friction is pretty much the only thing making driving a sane experience.
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Earthquake hits… power grid goes down…
“He set about assembling a 19-person team of physicists, engineers, and graphic designers to figure out a way to hover stationary objects with dynamic payloads.”
Graphic designers?
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I thought the USPTO patented anything and everything? They’ll even let you patent Maths and portions of the Human Genome won’t they?
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"By treating carpool lanes with conductive surfaces, hover vehicles could offer “the freedom of a car and the efficiency of a train.”
Will that be next to or in place of the Solar Frickin’ Roadways?
This isn’t (just) magnetic though … it looks like they induce a current in the sheet of material the hoverboard is floating over, which means they’re not limited to static magnetic fields.
Well, all magnetism involves currents, but I think you’re right that the answer is that in this case the magnetic field is significantly changing over time, rather than something close to a “magnetostatic” situation where the magnetic fields are constant and the currents through each point in the material are constant too (Earnshaw’s theorem just says you can’t have stable levitation in a magnetostatic scenario). Reading a little more about this, apparently if the levitating magnet has an oscillating magnetic field, then this can induce eddy currents in nearby conducting materials which create their own magnetic field that repels the levitating magnet, so oscillating fields are one of several ways around Earnshaw’s theorem.
Apparently, where we’re going, we still need roads.
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Are you calling me chicken?
