Came across this today. They even tease you with just enough of a physics explanation to get you curious.
How it works
According to the website, the ceramic, once brought down to a low enough temperature, becomes a superconductor (more like a super-duper conductor as they claim zero energy loss).
Now that it is a superconductor, the magnetic field attempts to avoid it, so where it would usually penetrate the disc, it now goes around it for the most part. In some places it penetrates the disc where the superconductivity is weak. These weakened locations are discrete (i.e. grain boundaries), so they act to constrain the disc from moving.
Awesome.
Related posts:
Article by chris loughnane
Chris is Design Engineer + Sustainability Advocate at a Boston area design consultancy and has written 134 sweet posts for the Product Development Notebook.
Need a regular fix of product design goodness? Subscribe via RSS or Email to keep up with the latest posts!
The Product Development Notebook runs the Thesis Wordpress Theme.
posts via email: