Pyrolytic Graphite Levitation
Pyrolytic graphite is poly-crystalline graphite deposited at high temperatures by thermal decomposition (lysis) of a hydrocarbon. Basically they obliterate carbon (or some organic) with high heat and it deposits back down into honeycomb shaped sheets...or they blast methane in a near vacuum with high heat and it vapor deposits back down into a single layer of graphite that is highly ordered and build layer-up-layer, but can easily be separated. These sheets are diamagnetic: they push away from a magnet by creating an opposing magnetic field to the magnet’s field. So, what can you do with it? Levitation!
There are many experiments showing a magnet floating between two pieces of pyrolytic graphite with a much larger magnet overhead. What a boring waste: the opposing magnetic force the graphite creates is so tiny that it can’t lift the magnet…so they use a big magnet above to do the lifting and then the graphite bounces it up and down to center it in mid-air.
Here’s an easier idea: but a bunch of magnets on a table and then flop the graphite on top of them: instant hoverboard!
A neat little trick if you've got a bunch of pieces of pyrolitic graphite (which I do) is to split them sheet-wise with a knife to get two thinner sheets from a single thicker sheet. Anyone whose played with the mineral mica knows how to do this. Thinner and thinner also means lighter and lighter and thus easier to float higher and higher from the magnets.
The layered structure plane has strong covalent bonding but weak electrostatic bonds between planes which leads to a high degree of anisotropy (it’s various properties are directional: like it’s easier to crease cardboard in certain directions but not others, etc.). Thus, the magnetism is very perpendicular to the sheet (which is why is hovers away/up from magnets).
Is pyrolytic graphite new? Nope. It's been studied in textbooks since at least 1960!
So, basically get four or more magnets and put them on a steel sheet so they don't slide around. For the first time ever I actually shattered a rare earth magnet by having it slide towards my 1" cube N52-strength magnets. It was amazing and annoying and spit tiny slivers of the non-magnetic chrome coating everywhere.
A great way to handle these is to use wood handscrew clamps. They're for wood working. I clamp two magnets in two separate wooden handscrew clamps with the face of the cubes NOT extending past the front of the clamp. That way you can ease them together.
Also, I used a compass. The face that the North of the compass points to is south on the magnet. Obviously, where the south of the compass points is the north pole of the magnet. Yes, the poles of the Earth are mislabeled.
I needed to make a checkerboard pattern of north and south faces pointing up for my pyrolytic graphite levitation setup-although the height of levitation i achieved doesn't really grow with more powerful magnets.
If you get cylinder magnets you can make two columns side by side with the columns made of cylinders end to end. In the long trough between the two columns you can float a piece of 0.5mm mechanical pencil lead.
