Have you ever seen a thing "Just floating in air without any support?"

What shocked?

This is not a magical trick. Its "Science".

How? Lets see......

Quantum Levitation:- The superconductor stays on a magnet with liquid nitrogen over it, to keep its temperature too low, without any support. Its also remains in the way you want it to remain. You can see the image below:-

Now, let us see how this happens.


The Physics Behind

Its starts with a single crystal of sapphire wafer and coat it with a thin layer , which is around 1 micro meter thin, of ceramic material known as "Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide"(YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x). The Ceramic layer has no special magnetic or electrical properties at room temperature. However, when cooled below -185^oC the material becomes superconductor.

( Note:- (i)Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide, often abbreviated as YBCO, is a crystalline chemical compound with the formula as mentioned above. This material , a famous "high -temperature superconductor", achieved prominence because it was the first material to achieve superconductivity above the boiling point 77K of liquid nitrogen.

Structure of YBCO:-

(ii)Superconductor:- it is a material that offers "zero" electrical resistance below its characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8,1911 in Leiden. )

Below image is of sapphire crystal which is coated by ceramic material.:-

It conducts electricity without any resistance, with no energy loss. You can say, superconductivity and magnetic field are enemy of each other. So, when possible the superconductor will expel the magnetic field from inside. This is "Meissner Effect".
In this case, since the superconductor is extremely thin, the magnetic field does penetrates. However, it does that in discrete quantities called flux tubes. Inside each magnetic flux tube superconductivity is locally destroyed. The superconductor will try to keep the magnetic tubes pinned in week areas. Any spatial movement of the superconductor will cause the flux tubes to move. In order to prevent that the superconductor remains "trapped" in midair.

(Note:- The Meissner effect is the expulsion of a magnet field from a superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state. The German physicist Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered the phenomenon in 1933 by measuring the magnetic field distribution outside superconducting tin and leas samples.

Diagram of the Meissner effect. Magnetic field lines, represented as arrows, are excluded from s superconductor when it is below its critical temperature.)

A video showing Quantum Levitation :-








Is it really according to "Meissner effect" ?

In a weak applied field, a superconductor "expels" nearly all magnetic flux. It does this by setting up electric currents near its surface. The magnetic field of these surface currents cancels the applied magnetic field within the bulk of the superconductor. As the field expulsion, or cancellation, does not change with time, the currents producing this effect (called persistent currents) do not decay with time.Therefore the conductivity can be thought of as infinite: a superconductor.

Near the surface, within a distance called the London penetration depth, the magnetic field is not completely cancelled. Each superconducting material has its own characteristic penetration depth.

Any perfect conductor will prevent any change to magnetic flux passing through its surface due to ordinary electromagnetic induction at zero resistance. The Meissner effect is distinct from this: when an ordinary conductor is cooled so that it makes the transition to a superconducting state in the presence of a constant applied magnetic field, the magnetic flux is expelled during the transition. This effect cannot be explained by infinite conductivity alone. Its explanation is more complex and was first given in the London equations by the brothers Fritz and Heinz London.

Where Quantum Levitation is used?

Quantum levitation is used in making "Hoverboards."

Students from Tel Aviv University's Group School of Physics and Astronomy have created a quantum locking device that has geeks dreaming of hoverboards. The students' "mystical fizzling" magnetic puck can float above a magnetic track, locked in mid air it moves. Liquid nitrogen drastically lowers the temperature of the puck, which is made of YBCO, explains Olivia Solon at Wired. Once the super-cold puck enters a superconducting state, it becomes "strongly diamagnetic." That means that, when paired with another magnetic field( in this case, a magnetic track),"it will create an equally opposing magnetic field, locking in place."nudge will send the elevated puck zooming around the track.

In future, it will be used in transportation as "Maglev train" is used in Japan.

See:-

Maglev is a system of transportation that uses "Magnetic levitation" to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather rather using mechanical methods, such as friction-reliant wheels, axles and bearings. Maglev transport is a means of flying vehicle or object along a guide way by using magnets to create both lift and thrust, only a few inches above the guide way surface.

A video on Maglev :-

(Note:- Magnetic Levitation is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic pressure is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational and any other accelerations. Here is an image :-

Levitating Pyrolytic carbon.)