Fiction or Fact
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 12:51 am
Marty McFly’s wheeless ride from Back to the Future II is with us in real life. How does it work? And what does it mean for future transport?
It was the must-have gift you had no hope of finding under the tree on Christmas morning – mostly because it didn’t exist.
The hoverboard may have only been a reality in Michael J Fox’s 1989 film Back to the Future II, but that didn’t stop a generation of youngsters wanting one – whether they could skateboard or not.
It may have taken nearly 30 years, but it looks like reality might have taken the first faltering steps toward the realities the 1980s blockbusters promised us.
As the video below shows, it’s now technically possible to make a hoverboard - like the one that Marty McFly careers around the 21st Century streets with - thanks to three things: magnets, semiconductors and the freezing properties of liquid nitrogen.
In the video below, you can watch one such hoverboard in action, built by members of the BBC’s Britlab team – though it is only big enough to hold a toy soldier.
In short, the superconductor is wrapped in tinfoil, and plunged into liquid nitrogen – which has been cooled to -197C (-322F) – and then placed over a track of magnets. Cooling the superconductor down to this incredibly cold temperature reduces its electrical resistance to almost nothing, meaning it can conduct large currents that create an intense magnetic field. So when you place the superconductor over the magnetic track, it hovers an inch or so above it.
It’s not quite as dramatic as in Back to the Future II, but it is a hoverboard.
Tinfoil-coated desk experiments are one thing – but what about out on the streets? Last year, luxury carmaker Lexus (an offshoot of auto giant Toyota) unveiled their own hoverboard, which was being tested on a specially built track in Barcelona. In the short clip you can see below, a skateboarder goes seamlessly from a traditional board to the new Lexus creation. More:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2016122 ... on-to-fact
It was the must-have gift you had no hope of finding under the tree on Christmas morning – mostly because it didn’t exist.
The hoverboard may have only been a reality in Michael J Fox’s 1989 film Back to the Future II, but that didn’t stop a generation of youngsters wanting one – whether they could skateboard or not.
It may have taken nearly 30 years, but it looks like reality might have taken the first faltering steps toward the realities the 1980s blockbusters promised us.
As the video below shows, it’s now technically possible to make a hoverboard - like the one that Marty McFly careers around the 21st Century streets with - thanks to three things: magnets, semiconductors and the freezing properties of liquid nitrogen.
In the video below, you can watch one such hoverboard in action, built by members of the BBC’s Britlab team – though it is only big enough to hold a toy soldier.
In short, the superconductor is wrapped in tinfoil, and plunged into liquid nitrogen – which has been cooled to -197C (-322F) – and then placed over a track of magnets. Cooling the superconductor down to this incredibly cold temperature reduces its electrical resistance to almost nothing, meaning it can conduct large currents that create an intense magnetic field. So when you place the superconductor over the magnetic track, it hovers an inch or so above it.
It’s not quite as dramatic as in Back to the Future II, but it is a hoverboard.
Tinfoil-coated desk experiments are one thing – but what about out on the streets? Last year, luxury carmaker Lexus (an offshoot of auto giant Toyota) unveiled their own hoverboard, which was being tested on a specially built track in Barcelona. In the short clip you can see below, a skateboarder goes seamlessly from a traditional board to the new Lexus creation. More:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2016122 ... on-to-fact
And we'll see if it's fact or fiction 
