How could I develop a magnetically charged coil so that a magnet might levitate through it?

Question

I am in the process of doing a project for a science fair exhabition and I'm interested in finding out as part of my project how I might be able the make a simple bar-magnet levitate through a series of magnetically charged coils (electromagnetic of course). Basically I'm trying to find out info about the circutes I might need and also the find out about the meterials I might need. I would be grateful if you could give me any info at all, even if you have info about URL's I might be able to go to on this subject. Thank for your help.

Answer 1

It won't be easy to calculate. You can easily calculate the strength of the magnetic field of the electromagnet with the current and the number of turns. But it's harder to know the field strength of the bar magnet, and even harder to calculate the force produced by the interaction between the fields. Once you got that force, it's easy to compare that to the gravitational force on the mass of the bar magnet. It's probably easier just to build it and try it. All you really need is a coil of wire and a current.

Once you have the apparatus, borrow an instrument to measure the fields. I'd have more fun with a ball bearing on a circular (non-magnetic) track, timing the current to make the ball move around the track, like a cyclotron.