Magnets can be used to levitate and move objects without having to touch them. A group of researchers at Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology have used magnetic fields to manipulate the movement of small objects, like a nylon screw.
Magnets can be used to levitate and move objects without having to touch them.
A group of researchers at Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology have come up with a novel method using magnetic fields in a liquid to manipulate the movement of small objects, like a nylon screw.
Using a method called MagLev, short for magnetic levitation, the researchers can manipulate irregularly shaped objects.
This is the first time that the MagLev method has been used to move objects in liquid rather than just separating materials based on their different densities.
Doctor Andrew Steele, who specialized in magnetism at the University of Oxford during his PhD, but was not part of the study, is quoted as saying: "What they are doing is suspending a non-magnetic object that is embedded in a liquid that is itself magnetic. If you place an object in that chamber, gravity is pulling it down and buoyancy is pushing it up."
External magnets can also be used to move the object being held within the MagLev device.
Researchers want to continue experimenting with the MagLev device by putting two objects into the liquid and trying to orient them, and put them together from inside of the magnetic liquid.
