Where are the Hoverboards? Professor says not too far off

Professor Matthew Sullivan levitates a DeLorean figurine using superconductors. Credit: Image courtesy of Ithaca College

The levitating technology Marty McFly encountered in his jaunt through Oct. 21, 2015 during the 1989 film “Back to the Future II” isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem, thanks to superconductivity. “We’re probably closer to being able to create a transportation system that’s levitating than we are to creating personal automobiles that can both fly and drive,” said A/Prof Matthew C. Sullivan

When properly cooled, a superconductor will resist magnetic attraction and actually float above a magnet. Though the hover technology in the fictional time-travel series is never detailed, it would be entirely feasible, if there were a lot of properly cooled superconductors in our rides and magnets in our roads, or vice versa.

Earlier this year, engineers from automaker Lexus hit social media gold with videos and commercials showing off their Slide hoverboard, which makes use of superconductors but can only be ridden in their specialized skate park in Spain. Sullivan’s own demonstrations, in which he sends a small puck made of superconducting material around a track made of magnets, are smaller in scale but no less impressive.

Today some of the mag-lev (magnetic levitation) train systems online throughout the world make use of the technology, as well as the magnets in MRI machines and in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider LHC in Switzerland, where the Higgs boson particle was confirmed in 2012.

Another property of superconductors is that they provide no resistance to electrical current. Though superconductors are currently utilized in limited commercial capacity in cell phone towers and electrical transmission cables and wires, the extremely low temperatures needed to maintain superconductivity limits their use.

The critical temperature for unconvential superconductors is unusually high, and it’s unknown why. Another mystery is what it is about their composition that makes them superconductive. “That’s what my lab is trying to do: Add a small piece to this puzzle of trying to understand how these materials actually can superconduct, because they defy the logic that was understood back in the 1950s,” Sullivan said. Sullivan and his students are focused on learning about the mechanisms that allow for materials to transition from a normal state to a superconducting one. The ultimate goal, he said, would be to discover a material that transitions at much higher temperatures.

“If we can find superconductors that work at room temperature, or even dry ice temperatures, you’ll find an explosion and a revolution in how electronic circuitry works, how electric power is transmitted from power plants to homes, and how power is transmitted inside cities,” Sullivan said. http://www.ithaca.edu/news/releases/where-are-the-hoverboards-ithaca-college-professor-says-not-too-far-off-40385/.VibpoqLIx0I