Dropping a Giant Monster Magnet on -196°C Aluminum—Surprising Eddy Current Demonstration

In this video I show you what it looks like to drop a giant neodymium magnet on a chunk of aluminum. I talk about magnetic braking and Eddy currents and how they work, then I show you what it looks like with type II superconductor.

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*Any experiment you try is at YOUR OWN RISK. The Action Lab assumes no responsibility for any injury if you attempt anything you see in this video or on The Action Lab channel.

[Riccoo]

Okay now this is the content you want to see!

[nielsendc]

“well it just so happens that I have a type 2 superconductor here...” 😂

[fabio]

Next video: Jumping from a building onto -196°C aluminum wearing monster magnet shoes

[abdusubasa]

"Look at how cool it is"
its literally at -196 degrees

[WouterVerbruggen]

The superconducting puck keeping its orientation is not purely because it's type II. When you rotate the magnet away, it'll indeed "try" to stay in the same orientation due to the flux pinning / quantum locking, but the eddy currents (which are fundamentally different than flux pinning) also does it. It should be mentioned also that this experiment as you conducted it is only possible because it is a type II superconductor. A type I superconductor will stop superconducting at fields of the range of 100 miliTesla at the max, which this magnet far exceeds. And of course also because type I superconductors need to be in the single-digit Kelvin range, which is almost impossible to sustain in a normal environment XD.

[rubenleal]

I think this was your best vid.
Mind
Blown

[ajayvarma]

Scientists discovers a new element.
Action lab: Let's put it in Vaccum.

[IndieSamurai]

I love this channel bcoz he neither stretches the videos to 10 mins just to show a single phenomenon, nor does he give a pointless intro before the actual video starts.
Love you Action Lab ❤️

[ameykulkarni]

This guy is on fire lately 🔥.
The content is so much informative.

[ellnino]

Dips superconducter into liquid nitrogen:
"Look how cool this is! "

[EthanAllred]

*I love quantum locking. And your channel is rockin'!* Always very interesting

[markbernier]

First time I heard of this phenomenon was in school back in the 70's. It was being used as a damper in mechanical scales to make them come to rest more quickly. This video takes the effect to a totally different level.

[Ktulu]

Big magnets, big chunks of aluminum and quantum locking. James is slowly transforming into a wizard and we didn't notice!
AWESOME!!!

[micah_wong]

"Eddy current" **flashbacks to electroboom**

[TruthNerds]

Some trains also use eddy current braking.

The German ICE-3 series of high speed trains e.g. uses 3 operational braking systems in this order of precedence and depending on the amount of deceleration required:

1. Regenerative braking where the electric motors work as generators and feed electricity back into the grid.
2. Linear eddy current braking.
3. Pneumatic braking – plain old disc (i.e. friction) braking with pneumatic actuators

Eddy current brakes in principle do not suffer from wear, though, to be honest, there were some issues with clearance (the electromagnet needs to be located very close to the rail) and concerns that induced currents may negatively affect electrical systems on the track, e.g. for signaling.

[DANGJOS]

By the way, for anyone curious, aluminum is actually paramagnetic, but only very weakly.

[phuzo]

I am in love with Ur way of presenting ur content 😍😍😀👍

[RaivoltG]

This is one of the coolest videos on the internet! That's blowing my mind! You are the master of awesome science videos! Thank you so much for making these videos!!!

[jasongrim]

👍👍👍👍wow just wow hover boards that actually hover might be coming sooner than people think

[Blubb]

This was the best explanation for Quantum Locking I’ve seen.

Cool!