How the hoverboard went from fiction to fact

Marty McFly’s wheelless ride from Back to the Future II is with us in real life. How does it work? And what does it mean for future transport?

The hoverboard could have solely been a reality in archangel J Fox’s 1989 film Back to the longer term II, however, that didn’t stop a generation of children wanting one – whether or not they might skateboard or not.

It may have taken nearly thirty years, however, engineers ar taking the primary faltering steps toward the realities the Eighties blockbuster secure us.

As the video below shows, it’s technically attainable to create a hoverboard - just like the one that Marty McFly careers around the twenty-first Century streets with - due to 3 things: magnets, semiconductors and therefore the chilling properties of nitrogen.

In the video below, you'll be able to watch one such hoverboard in action, designed by members of the BBC’s Britt lab team – although it's solely sufficiently big to carry a dolly.

In short, the superconductor is wrapped in tin foil, and plunged into nitrogen – that has been cooled to -197C (-322F) – and so placed over a track of magnets. Cooling the superconductor right down to this improbably cold temperature reduces its resistance to nearly nothing, which means it will conduct giant currents that make Associate in the Nursing intense force field. thus after you place the superconductor over the magnetic track, it hovers an in. about on top of it.

It’s approximately as dramatic as in Back to the longer term II, however, it's a hoverboard.

Tinfoil-coated table experiments air one issue – however what concerning out on the streets? Last year, luxury automaker Lexus (an issue of car large Toyota) disclosed their own hoverboard, that was being tested on a specially designed track in urban centre.

The argentiferous skateboard contains an equivalent reasonably superconducting material because of the Britt lab team’s miniature hoverboard – and within it's a super-cold substance that helps chill that material right down to the proper temperature. Steam hisses from the edges of the board – that’s not for result, however, a part of that revolutionary cooling system

But, as ever, things aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem. whereas the hoverboard will so work, that’s as a result of the track it’s running over has had magnets embedded in it. On a track while not those magnets – your nearest path or skate park ramp, for example – the hoverboard can go obscurity.

The Lexus hoverboard will, however, purpose to the probabilities of resistance, hovering transport.

Volvo has already designed a take a look at track in Sweden to check if such a thought can add real-life conditions  

You might not wish to infix magnets within the pavement, however, what concerning the road? Swedish automaker Volvo has already printed a vision wherever magnet-studded roads might facilitate guide driverless cars safely.

Volvo has already designed a take a look at the track in Sweden to check if such a thought can add real-life conditions. They drove a changed S60 at 90mph (150km/h) on the track when lines of magnets had been placed down the centre and edges of the lanes.

Volvo additionally checked out whether or not magnets ought to be placed on the surface of the road or embedded inside it. The surface choice appeared to|perceived to} be the most effective – however it would mean a colossal quantity of cash would get to be spent putting them on the world’s roads. would it not be cost-effective?

Maglev trains use a similar system, with the trains running on the rails

The power of magnets and superconductors makes additional sense, however, once it involves trains.

The technology has been embraced sky-high by Japan, the house of the passenger train, China and Asian country, UN agency have all designed little operating railroading – rail technology – lines to check the technology

In Gregorian calendar month 2015, railroading trains lidded speeds of 375mph (603km/h) in trials in Japan.

"The railroading train works due to superconducting magnets mounted into the linear motor train, reacting to the coils designed into the guide means," the Yamanashi railroading Exhibition Center's Makiko Kajiwara, told CNBC earlier this year.

The railroading lines do value way more to create than a track for standard bullet trains, however, they create up for this in lower running prices – as a result of none of the train components bit the track, there's less wear-and-tear.

And the technology is additionally a part of the method behind the Hyperloop system declared by Tesla owner Elon Musk a number of years back, although Hyperloop isn’t a real maglev; additionally as magnets, fans ar used, making a cushion of air that the passenger-carrying pods float on as they race through controlled tubes at speeds of up to 750mph (1,200km/h).

It may not be as compact as a hoverboard, however, be consoled with this – you actually live in the future your childhood secure.