Boaz Almog "levitates" a superconductor

How can a super-thin, three-inch disk levitate something 70,000 times its own weight? In a riveting, futuristic demonstration, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail -- completely frictionlessly and with zero energy loss.

Other TED Talks

Superconductor

A bismuth-based superconducting disk sits on a copper base and is immersed in liquid nitrogen. Two small, very strong magnets are placed on top of the superconductor. The magnets levitate due to the expelled magnetic field from the superconductor. Superconductors have the unique property of providing zero resistance for electrical currents when cooled to low enough temperatures. Thus, a current induced in a superconductor will last for an extraordinarily long time. This property also leads to the fact that superconductors will expel all magnetic fields, a phenomenon called the Meissner Effect. As a result of this effect, a magnet approaching a superconductor will "see" an opposite magnet of the same size and field strength as itself, which causes it to levitate.

Other demonstrations from MIT

Liquid Nitrogen Experiments: The Superconductor

What happens when a magnet is placed on a superconductor?

Other Frostbite Theater videos

3 shorts animations about superconductivity

Conductor vs superconductor:



Meissner effect:



Formation of a superconducting state:

Quantum levitation

Suspending a superconducting disc above or below a set of permanent magnets. The magnetic field is locked inside the superconductor ; a phenomenon called 'Quantum Trapping'.

Superconductivity Group, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Superconductivity: a far-reaching theory

In this interview with physicsworld.com, Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discusses superconductivity and how its impact is felt across seemingly disparate areas of physics.

Source:  PhysicsWorld

Magnetic Levitation

Magnet levitates with the help of a ceramic and liquid nitrogen.