Star Was The Old Republic Hovering Speeder Screenshot was taken in game by Vinh Nguyen using Fraps software and Pixelmator to crop.
Just like any average Joe, quantum levitation feels like magic and my inner child goes haywire in a positive and curious senses. The video right after the break will show you that a crystal sapphire wafer (and I have never seen one in real life) would suspend and lock into various heights and angles in the midair, and the whole levitation phenomenon allowed this crystal sapphire wafer to float and fly in midair as if it was actually guided by some strange mechanism which we could not see with our naked eyes. Apparently, as io9.com’s Quantum locking will blow your mind — but how does it work? article explains that it was the phenomenon of flux tubes which locked the wafer in midair and allowed it to be manipulated as if magic.
According to my understanding from reading the io9.com’s Quantum locking will blow your mind — but how does it work? article, flux tubes are possible in nature giving thanks to how electromagnetic field works. I’m not having a good understanding of the nature of electromagnetic field at all, but as the name for the force field suggests, it has to be dealt with electricity and magnetic. Apparently, if I’m not mistaken, Wikipedia’s Electromagnetic field article explains that this particular field is the whole part where electrical charges’ behaviors would dictate how sub-fields (i.e., electrical and magnetic forces) would behave. So, moving electrical charges in whatever fashion which I might not clearly understand gives way to the production of magnetic force, and stationary electrical charges would give way to the production of electrical force.
Let end our digression on the subject and get back to our main course which is quantum levitation. So, it turns out that when someone applies a thin coat of superconductor material, yttrium barium copper oxide, onto something similar to the super-conductive crystal sapphire wafer, the superconductor object’s electrical forces from within would repel against the magnetic forces from without with just enough force to not actually create a breaking away behavior where a super-conducive object would fling off and away from the magnetic counterpart entirely.
So we understand the not breaking away, repel, and floating in the midair parts, but what makes the super-conductive object to be locked in the midair at various heights and angles? As io9.com’s Quantum locking will blow your mind — but how does it work? explains, without applying too much superconductor material onto a super-conductive object, a phenomenon known as flux tubes would come knocking, and so it’s possible to lock and maneuver the super-conductive object in the midair as how the video right after the break will show. io9.com explains flux tubes work as the weak coat of superconductor material allows some magnetic forces to pierce the super-conductive object, allowing the magnetic forces to act somewhat as if threads of silk but unlike silk where the magnetic forces would have the ability to hold the super-conductive object in midair entirely on its own if I’m not mistaken. To put this in another way, if I’m not entirely wrong, the flux tubes would not need to be strung to something else in order for it to hold and lock a super-conductive object in the midair; this differs flux tubes phenomenon from how silk threads phenomenon works, because silk threads need to be stitched to fabrics in order for buttons and whatever fashionable ornaments to be attached to the fabrics.
Either directly under the YouTube’s Quantum Levitation video right after the break or in the comment section of the io9.com’s Quantum locking will blow your mind — but how does it work? article, some commenters suggested that it would be impracticable to try to implement quantum levitation for everyday applications. They thought that the required efforts and resources that needed to be garnered in order for applying quantum levitation to something as hover speeders (i.e., how Star Wars The Old Republic video game has its floating motorbikes and car-like vehicles) would outweigh the benefits of having such technology in the first place. On the contrary to the argument above, some other commenters suggested that the superconductor material would not need to be coated onto highways/roads and railroads, because magnetic would be used instead — leading to just enough amount of superconductor material to be coated onto vehicles. Nonetheless, we might never know whether this would be less expensive in resources and efforts unless we dare to put this idea into practice.
Besides the engineering aspect, we might not be able to ignore the possible negative side effects of health if there will be any when humans subject themselves to be constantly surrounded by huge concentrations of magnetic forces. I guess many more studies have to be done on how huge concentrations of magnetic forces would affect the environment and human health before anyone even dares to think about putting quantum levitation into practice on a massive scale such as turning roads and highways into magnetic pathways for levitational vehicles. Anyhow, enough of my ranting, why don’t you check out the mind blowing quantum levitation video right after the break.
Sources:
Vinh Nguyen
