How to make anti gravity hoverboard

How to make anti gravity hoverboard

If you’ve seen the movie Back To the Future, you’ll be familiar with the idea of the anti gravity hoverboard that Marty McFly rode around the future – although that future was 2015 and there are no signs of a board like his coming onto the market any time soon.

Scientists have looked into how to make a real hoverboard that floats and have concluded that to do this, you’d need to create a magnetic field that generates electricity on the ground/surface. The magnetic field and the electric currents repel one another, which enables the hoverboard to float above the surface.

It may sound simple, but as of yet, nobody has managed to make a true anti-gravity hoverboard. There were reports that Tesla had made one, but videos going round on social media, were proved to be fakes.

A company called Omni hoverboards are continuing to try and develop a real floating hoverboard and the CEO holds the Guinness World Record for the longest flight on a hoverboard, which he did over Lake Quareau in Quebec, Canada. He travelled a distance of 275.9 metres.

He said at the time: “I will showcase that stable flight can be achieved with a machine one can stand on and control with their feet.”

When it comes to how to make anti gravity hoverboard, Omni have created one that works by using air as the propelling force. Props push air downwards create an upward force that moves series of rotors on the base of the board.

You can move backwards and forwards and up and down on the Omni hoverboard, but, the batteries needed to power it are so heavy, you can only ride for a few minutes at a time and with a series of rotating blades on the underside, it is dangerous.

Hendo have also made a floating hoverboard, which skateboard superstar Tony Hawk has trialled. The Hendo uses electromagnets and a conducting surface – an electric current repels electromagnets on the board and this makes it float.

The trouble is, you can only hover above a surface that conducts electricity – it wouldn’t work over water for example.

Lexus also made a hoverboard using magnetic fields using superconductors. It is smaller than both the Omni and Hendo hoverboards, but it doesn’t work unless the surface it is hovering above, is embedded with magnets. You also have to keep superconductors really cold in order for them to work and this requires adding something such as liquid nitrogen.

You can make your own mini floating hoverboard by making a small deck with cardboard or balsa wood and adding a magnet to the base. You then need to create rails for it to float on, which must be fitted with neodymium magnets. Place it all in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then, while still cold, place the rails parallel to one another and try and position the hoverboard in between them in the sweet spot – when you find this, the board will hover in mid-air. There’s a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOI9mF6UkSc