<p>I know right now you guys are focused on EA, which I will be in 2 years. Anyway, for those who are admitted, and don’t have to worry about HS all the time, help me with this: I want to suspend a particle in midair using magnets. Obviously, the particle will have to be metallic. Here is my plan:</p>
<p>|-------|
|-…#…| <- Bad picture…
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<p>the dashes are high powered electromagnets, and the # is a particle(ignore the …'s)
so basically, the forces at work here are the electromagnets, and gravity. The particle is surrounded on 6 sides by electromagnets. Is there more to this problem that I am not seeing? Could I just skip ahead to the electromagnetism part of my IB Physics book, and be able to do something like this?</p>
<p>Also, I was thinking that I could not have an electromagnet on the bottom of the cube, and adjust the power of the top on, so that it counteracts gravity? Just curious. I read on particle accelerators, and want to try this first.</p>
<p>If you take a top with low friction with a surface and spin it, you will get a vector pointing up. Couple that will some magnets and electric fields, the top will float, spinning in mid-air. </p>
<p>Not sure how to go about with the magnets, though. </p>
<p>tell you what i made this once. u attach a strong electomagnet at the top and vary its power inversely to the hieght of the particle frm the ground. so the electromagnet is thus constantly working against the gravity and also lessens its force when the particle is high to not let the particle stick to the magnet. to determine the hieght u can use light sensors and light recievers . it has a complex electrical design. but the basic idea is only float the prticle using gravity and the attractive forces</p>
<p>The way you have it now is basicaly right as long as you make sure the magnets are aligned(atleast in theory). If you wanted you could put one magnet under and anouther over, then have the other ones at a slight angle, but they would all have to be at the same angle, and that would probably be difficult to set up.</p>
<p>My fear is that if the particle is surrounded on all sides by electormagnets, i can’t see it! Also, is there any health risk to strong magnetism?</p>
<p>make the group of electro magnets act as one and u will also have to find the point where the particles is most stable sideways. its really like balancing a ball on your finger. u would also have to do a lot of trail and error to find the right wieght of the particle. or u clould use a plastic ball with a little iron coating for less wieght but moresize. its preferrable to use a spehrical pariticle because the dimenisons are same from every angle and a little spinnig wont upset the forces acting on the ball</p>
<p>Can’t use a bb, unless you want to try using induction and eddy currents, instead of plain magnetic attraction. Theres a plan for something like this online, the link is <a href=“Sitestar.net Your Technology Partner”>Sitestar.net Your Technology Partner; . Its less physics and definately more electronics and soldering. You really only need one magnetic if you think about it. Gravity always pulls down, and the magnet can pull up, and in the opposite direction the object is drifting. Its the matter of dynamically changing the magnet’s strength and having a dynamic equilibrium, instead of static, which is less stable. Read up on that in the chapter in your physics book. Also theres something elsewhere about levitating non-magnetic objects (really the trace elements in a living object or a strawberry). The link is <a href=“http://www.hfml.sci.kun.nl/levitation-movies.html[/url]”>http://www.hfml.sci.kun.nl/levitation-movies.html</a> . If you can do this under a budget, I’d be suprised because magnets of this strength require lots and lots of cooling. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m trying to be realistic here…
EDIT: Melting point of oxygen is 54 degrees kelvin, 10 degrees under the temperature of liquid nitrogen (not counting the fact that it melts and gains heat energy) and therefore making the use of solid oxygen totally pointless unless he has access to lots of money or resources beyond a state university</p>
<p>If you really want to have fun, just get a ceramic superconductor where the critical temp is above the temp of liquid nitrogen. That is definately doable under your budget especially if you have access to some LN2 say at a physics or accelerator lab… (its cheap if you want to buy it, hell, at the lab I worked at during the summer they used it to kill roaches and crickets by pouring it on the floor and then picking them up and making them shatter)</p>
<p>no. the only access i have is the inet, and the home depot/lowes. Plus, the university would only let me get an internship/research opportunity for CS.</p>