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by serf 4010 days ago
> The problem is, there's no friction (as the article states) for the board.

Where'd you read that? All I read was that they are working on a friction-free car.

It uses super-conductivity to facilitate levitation. Flux pinning creates an 'on-rails' movement between the two components (the superconductor and the magnetics on the ground).

Defects in the magnets and gaps would create areas of resistance, much like they do in toy-scale versions of this same concept, but you'll still be pinned to the magnetics as long as that superconductor stays cold.

There will be no 'astronaut-in-space' movement, because the board will only be able to achieve quantum levitation over a bed of magnetics, which will be many pieces and not defect-free.

http://quantumlevitation.com/the-physics/

http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_superconduct...