A university student has created a light that levitates.
Things that levitate are just cool. MagLev trains that can hit 581kmph? Cool. Marty McFly’s floating skateboard in Back to the Future? Cool. And now joining the exclusive list is a hovering lightbulb.
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To hover in mid-air, the LED light combines ordinary magnets with electromagnets and then delivers power wirelessly through a pair of resonating coils. According to Dvice.com, the resonating coils run separately to the magnets which helpfully keeps the light afloat when turned off.
In the event there’s a power shortage, the LED light won’t fall towards the floor. Between a magnet planted in the ceiling and another within the LED bulb, the light naturally wants to stick against the ceiling. In order to generate a hovering effect, the electromagnetic field omits a controlled force that repels the two magnets from one another. This clever trick ensures the light sticks to the ceiling in the case of a blackout.
The entire setup consumes around 9 watts of power, of which just 3 power the LED itself. Admittedly it’s not as energy efficient as an ordinary LED, but a hovering light is down-right extraordinary.
University of Queensland student Chris Rieger spent six months building the levitating light. Provided there’s enough interest (and based on the 84,000 hits his 4 day old YouTube video has, there very well could be) the electrical engineering student plans on making do-it-yourself kits, but how popular these kits will depend on the yet-to-be-set priced.
