What is Digg?130 Comments
- VeryBoredNow, on 10/10/2007, -5/+113And by 'solved' they mean "not solved"
- budgetguitar, on 10/10/2007, -1/+57Forget flying cars. Who wants Lindsey Lohan crashing her wasted self through their roof in the middle of the night because she can't read the altimeter properly? Where's my hoverboard is the real question? I've been waiting since 1985.
- DiggCommando, on 10/10/2007, -4/+44Ok, now where is the flying car I was promised?
All joking aside, this is a truly fascinating discovery as friction can become a limiting factor very quickly when you are talking about nano scale physics. - MasterThief117, on 10/10/2007, -1/+35People can barely drive in 2 dimensions. What makes you think people can drive in 3?
- nepawoods, on 10/10/2007, -1/+26It may actually be easier. Collisions in three dimensions are far less likely than in two.
- slayerab, on 10/10/2007, -0/+24Hoverboards? I want a Pitbull...
- archlich, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22Until you go from 3d to 2d... landing.
- Al3x, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19I personally would like to see something tangible...(not that stupid hovering top, seen that before). Something that shows me they can levitate...not just a spinning magnet.
- crazybrit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18Oh, wow...
Someone's missing the entire point of science. - FTLJohnson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14McFly, you BOJO!!! Those boards don't work on water - unless you've got POWER!!! HAHAHAHA!!!
- brharri1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Surprisingly common, unfortunately.
- archlich, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Why is everything heavy? Did the gravitational constant of the universe change in the future?
- MasterThief117, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Kind of reminds me of this comic
http://xkcd.com/298/ - psion01, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10Siszam, let's try to put this in its proper context and then you might see where this is coming from. Science never declared levitation to be fiction. Rather, levitation has been a staple of /science fiction/, and only recently have scientists figured out a way to make it work at small scales and close ranges.
- CatsAreGods, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I think most of the people finding a problem with this article don't understand enough physics to do anything but whine about their flying cars.
- akula696969, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I am sure by this you mean that "God" is always right. And then i would ask you for proof. This is the point you give me the bible....LOL
- GMorgan, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8There is a side benefit to that. At least you get Lindsey Lohan in your bedroom.
- dvddesign, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7*****, I'll settle for a pink one from Mattel.
- coredump0x01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Very uplifting news.
- LetsGoHawks, on 10/10/2007, -4/+10Then you read the article and find out this will only work for really small stuff at really close range.
Also, it's not really "levitation" it's more like "make two particles repel each other". - Protoss, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Is there any subject xkcd can't be referenced to?
- Graemebru, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Thats Heavy
- wizard13335, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Apparently not
- CDoug03, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5discovering that subatomic particles can "levitate" is sort of like discovering that sticking together like poles of two magnets creates a repelling force.
- mentor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5And by "levitation" the poster means 'Casimir force' and realises that levitation could be achieved using any number of configurations of applied forces.
- orangedog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5And in the 1950's the transistor was a neat gadget, but no one ever thought it could handle any serious current.
- mrfior2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5If anyone has ever read a proper article on the casimir effect, the way they do it is actually really cool. The science is easy to appreciate, if not fully understand, so I can't see why they didn't attempt to describe it better in this article. It has nothing to do with magnets. Here is a quick link that explains the easiest to understand explanation, the one that I first encountered:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/9747
However, it was discovered years ago, and I can't see what these people are doing that is particularly different. - streetr8cer13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4repel two objects IS levitation
- caliyankee, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7BAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAA!!
- YourDoom123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I think a lot of people are missing this FTA: "But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person." In otherwords, its just a matter of developing the tech before flying cars, hoverboards, etc. are possible.
oh and to the people talking about the magnetic top... RTFA, its about quantum physics, not magnets. - m4csrgh3yk3v, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5*Put's on invisibility cloak*
"Wingardium leviosa!" - simpleid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3but they are clever comics. :-)
- Casedot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"The practicalities of designing the lens to do this are daunting but not impossible and levitation 'could happen over quite a distance'."
- emjaymj, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Yes, LetGoHawks, we all assumed that physicists solving levitation was not be taken in a scientific context, but rather that levitation can only be magic.
- FLarsen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3That's when the problem sorts itself out.
- bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3this is not levitation of large objects.
- Ansible, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Could you employ this in a disruptor beam, to make all the molecules in someones body repel each other? Puddle gun!
- IRoaChI, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I know, the tomorrow we were promised in Back to Future still hasn't happened. I am pissed off Marty you used to be cool.
- bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3for some reason, i get the notion you have no clue what levitate even means. here: http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=define%3Alevitate&btnG=Google+Search ... generally, when you want to counter act the gravitational force you have to, you know, always use another force... since there really is no such thing as magic to cause levitation, as you seem to believe, a repelling force would be a good place to start when trying to counter act gravity... especially one that loses strength pretty quickly over distance.
- JCSaint, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3No, I think they just dissected David Blaine. =P (If there's an Ace of Clubs in my ass.....)
- whoaback, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Suck it Gravity!
- ColdDimSum, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Except the pic in the article has nothing to do with the type of "levitation" that they are talking about. It's a magnetic top spinning over another magnet that is below it and hidden from the picture. FAKE!
- Kenzan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2levitating tops! Awwwww I wanted a peanut...
- bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2first, the casimir force is nothing like gravity; it is not a fundamental force. second, it is not weak either; it just has a small range.
- BobbyMC, on 07/21/2008, -0/+2Back to the Future 2 didn't come out until 1989.
- nonnald, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2not whining about flying cars, whining about the lack of flying cars
- pault107, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3That isn't a benefit.
- teethman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3jesus did it
- FTLJohnson, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4If you can have a force that repels objects in a fashion that allows them to levitate and fly, what makes you think that same technology couldn't be used to create a bumper zone for negating impacts? Also, COMPUTER GUIDANCE SYSTEMS. There really aren't many obstacles to worry about in the air when the landscape is mapped, and all airborne objects would have some form of transponder which would cause onboard computers to avoid that object.
look at a map of roads, and reaize that when you extrude that into a MILE's worth of 3rd dimension, cars could fly around SO far apart from one another, it's ridiculous. Unless everyone was flying on computer generated paths mapped based on GPS coordinates, you'd probably only even SEE other cars while you were taking off or landing... or maybe a little more often in very urban areas. - loopyloopy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Back to the Future 2 was set in 2015. So 8 years to wait at most!!
-
Show 51 - 100 of 123 discussions
Check out the new & improved 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is