Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

In the science-fiction show Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5, season 2, Episode 26: "Unite and Strike!", the Fuse the hybrid vehicle Shatterbolt so that the vehicle can use reverse magnetic polarity to make it hover as it drove off a cliff. That gave me the idea to do my science project on the question, "Can reverse magnetic polarity make objects hover?" If I could get some info, that'd be great.

I'm glad to see that your curiosity has led you to what may become a good topic for a science fair project. I'll get back to you a little later today with some more thoughts, but for a start why don't you read the Wikipedia article on "magnetic levitation" that you can find at the following URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation

I hope we can help you come up with a good topic soon!

Hello again. First, here are two possible projects that can be found in the "Science Fair Project Ideas" section of the Science Buddies website:

Abracadabra! Levitating with Eddy Currents!
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p053.shtml

Magnetic Levitation: Experiments with 'Anti-magnets'
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p041.shtml

You should browse our site and/or use our topic selection "wizard" at
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/
to find more topics that might appeal to you.

Another way to levitate objects is by using air flow. Here are a couple of ideas in that vein:

“Bernoulli” ball
http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/aero ... #bernoulli

This looks like fun, but the name is misleading, since despite the widespread notion that this is an example of the Bernoulli effect, it is not. This confusing point is discussed here:
http://www.terrycolon.com/1features/ber.html
A difficulty with this topic would be to make it into an experiment. What would you vary? What would you observe to change as a result? I think there are answers to these questions, but you would have to figure them out for yourself (although we are always here to help).

Bernoulli plate

http://en.demo.phy.tw/experiments/fluid ... -levitatio

This describes a classic science museum demonstration. It's pretty amazing if you've never seen it before. Again, however, you would need to frame a proper scientific question that can be answered by an experiment.

For general advice on how to do a scientific experiment you can start at

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... thod.shtml

which I think you will find very helpful in coming up with a sucessful project.

Best of luck!

Interesting topic idea. As mentioned by John, there are many possibilities for research. To help you in your research, there are several real applications of this technology using magnetic force to hover, or levitate objects. On of the more impressive ones is the magnetic levitation train. Here is a link that explains how the "maglev train" works:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/transp ... -train.htm

I'll also mention briefly that there is an application using superconducting electromagnets on satellites for control in orbit, but its still in its technical infancy.

Good luck,
David

Thanks for the help. I've come up with a project idea and I have most of the materials I need and I'm still doing a bit of research. But, for future reference for others, I will NOT delete this topic.

Glad to here your off and running on a project. Yes, always leave your topic threads for others. You can always post back here if you have questions on your current project effort.

Good luck