This tower contains a cube that floats in mid-air. It floats permanently with a clear visible gap all around
the cube. No batteries, no string, no electric circuits and certainly no tricks; Just physics!
The cube is a strong rare-earth neodymium magnet. There is a second neodymium magnet at the very top.
The cube sits between two discs of pyrolytic graphite. The two magnets are attracted to one another
but they don’t slam together. But why? The graphite is highly diamagnetic which means when the
graphite is subjected to a magnetic field it induces/creates a smaller magnetic field anti-parallel to the
external field. In other words a repulsive force.
The cube is quarter of in inch (6.35mm) so not particularly big but still highly impressive.
There are screw threads to allow adjustments of the gap between the graphite and also the gap between the magnets.
Suitable for ages 14+. |