The Lexus Hoverboard is Finally Here

After having told us that they have been working on it, well, here's the proof of it in action. The board uses superconducting magnetic levitation technology and hence must be ridden on a magnetic metal surface to operate properly. There was a special skatepark created for this and Lexus embedded almost 200 meters of magnetic track to demonstrate the functioning of hoverboard.

The hoverboard is constructed from an insulated core, containing HTSLs (high temperature superconducting blocks). These are housed in cryostats - reservoirs of liquid nitrogen that cool the superconductors to -197 degree Celcius. It is after that, that the board is then placed above a track containing permanent magnets. When the board is cooled to its operating temperature magnetic flux lines of the track are put into place, maintaining the hover height of the board.

The board hovers roughly more than 3 inches off the ground without a rider and compresses to 2 inches with the rider on top of it. Magnetic levitation might now be a new invention, for we have the Maglev trains which have been around. The hoverboard uses the same principles but clearly is quite the hit with skateboarders.