Let the Marty McFly jokes fly, pun completely intended here. A little more than a month ago Lexus gave us a sneak peak at the hoverboard many didn’t want to believe was real. Well, apparently it is. Kind of.
According to an article published in Wired, the hoverboard is powered more by magnets than magic. A combination of superconductors and magnets combine to defy gravity, pushing the board and its rider off the ground. Together they create the Messner effect, which, in crazy physics speak, says that taking a magnetic field near the superconductor creates a current. The board itself could either serve as the magnet or the superconductor to create levitation. As long as you have both, you’ve got flying dudes on skateboards… and that’s really all that matters. The smoke coming out of the board is liquid nitrogen, which cools the superconductors below (at -321 degrees Farenheit). Once the liquid nitrogen runs out the superconductors heat up and the board stops hovering. Boom. Session over. Until you get some new liquid nitrogen. All this means the skatepark you see here is not your ordinary concrete playground. The skaters you see in this video are actually carving lines over other (at least partially) magnetic surfaces.
Either way, now you know how it all works. Maybe. The important thing here is this is the first ever hoverboard edit. Ever. Think about that for a minute…or just watch it.
Mind = blown
