Science Project - Magnetic Levitation

[Lewis Lamb]

This is my son's 7th grade science project. It's obviously not woodworking, but it was mostly constructed in the garage. It is a magnetic levitation device. The floating objects have rare earth magnets attached to them, and they levitate under the electromagnet. A sensor monitors the position of the object, and an electronic controller continually switches the polarity of the electromagnet as needed to keep the object in place. So far, we've only kept it on for 15-20 minutes at a time to protect the controller from overheating, but as far as I know, it will stay afloat as long as the power is on.

[Bill Lewis]

That's pretty cool, I like the ghost!

Now, can you scale it up to full size? You see I do this haunted house thing and...

[Ted Calver]

Great Project! Have you done any "spin" experiments to see how long objects will spin?

[Lewis Lamb]

If you give Anakin a little thump on the foot, he will spin dozens - maybe even a couple of hundred - of times. One of the things we wanted to do, but just ran out of time, was construct a little top-like device that is balanced all the way around and then see how long it will spin. My guess is that if you could get the same speed you'd get with top on the floor, it would spin for several minutes. We'll find out after the science fair when we have it back at home.

[Jerry Clark]

That is neat-- great project and also a learning tool.