Hmm before I talk about this let me ask you a question. Who has watched the movie “back to the future”? If the answer is yes then good but if it is no then I would recommend you to watch it. Apart from a good story, what the movie portrays is a lot of cool gadgets and the most eye catching one is the cool Hoverboard.
Well for those of you who don’t know what a Hoverboard is, imagine it as a normal skateboard but with no wheels and lifted (or I would say hovering) a few inches above the ground. Long story short it is just like a flying skateboard, sounds cool right!!!
So coming back to the point why I am talking about a Hoverboard is because it has actually become a reality. Yes I said it right we have invented a Hoverboard, well not we but people working at the company HENDO have. No, it’s not a hoax but they have actual proof that the Hoverboard works and to prove it they literally gave it to the legend Tony Hawk to have a ride! A small demonstration can be seen in the pic below.
So how does it actually work? Well the company says that it uses four hover-engines utilising ‘Magnetic Field Architecture’, to break it down it uses an opposing magnetic field from the surface below. Well in simple terms what the engines do is that they have some permanent or electro-magnets in them with changing magnetic fields . Due to this changing magnetic field eddy currents are produced in the conducting surface below which tends to generate its own magnetism. According to Lenz’s law the field so produced is in opposition to its cause and hence due to repulsion the board is able to hover. An illustration is given below.
Obviously the technology behind it is very advance with the use ‘Dynamic magnetic suspension’ and ‘halbach array’ etc. Both of these technologies are currently in use in Magnetic levitation trains.
Well one major drawback in these boards is that they require metallic sheets as surface below to actually produce this effect but the company says that they are working on some more compounds. Plus the board comes at a price of a whopping 10,000$ but they do provide a ‘white box’ developer kit at a price of 300$ so that you can get an idea of how the board works and apply it anywhere. The company is open to any new developments suggested by anyone on how to improve their technology…..now that’s cool!!!
Well to sum it all up I can say that the day is not far behind when we could actually use a Hoverboard (literally flying) to move from one place to another .
To check out about the company the link is: http://hendohover.com/
To actually see it in action with Tony Hawk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSheVhmcYLA
An easier way to understand the phenomenon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OklLJ-NpECo