4 ms·

None of the earlier articles mentioned ferromagnetic levitation vs superconducting levitation and how to tell them apart.

adrian_b 3y ago
There is no such thing as ferromagnetic levitation (i.e. there is no stable position). Nevertheless, a piece of ferromagnetic material which has a permanent remanent magnetization (which is possible only for a subset of the ferromagnetic materials) when put on a magnet may take a position close to vertical, with one edge pressed on the magnet. It is very easy to verify if this is what you see by moving the piece of material to the other pole of the magnet, where it must take a reversed position, with the other edge pressed on the magnet. A diamagnetic material will be equally repelled by both poles of the magnet, so moving it between the poles will not change its behavior. A soft ferromagnetic material, like iron, will be equally attracted by both poles of the magnet. The explanations that iron impurities could be present in quantities so great as to form some unknown iron compounds with high coercivity and some unknown experimental circumstances could magnetize permanently the samples, are not significantly more credible than the claims that room-temperature superconductors do exist. In any case, anyone who has made some samples can verify easily whether they are ferromagnetic or diamagnetic. It would be more credible that someone has made fake claims, than that they have mistaken a ferromagnetic material for a diamagnetic material.
- chmod600 3y ago
  Thank you for the informative reply. Given that it's so easy for the experimenter to verify, you are saying that the most credible explanation is scientific fraud?
themagician 3y ago
Because all of the people publishing information about this were playing the options market. There was no need to actually educate anyone on anything. This was a scam. It worked. One person sees the opportunity it creating a hype train and gets a few buddies on board. Loads up on $1 calls for something they feel could be the next meme stock, like AMSC. Options start to load up on 7/18, just a few days before the 7/22 original drop on arxiv. You get the 7/22 drop and then uploads of grainy videos start to show up. Bank a few million in options contracts as the price of AMSC doubles overnight. Other people see the hype train leaving the station and start their own, using the same strategy. It's how you end up with a dozen potato quality videos and very specific information attached to the comment threads, "This is going to be HUGE for quantum computing @IonQ_Inc if true." We have seen these types of market manipulation scams in the past. This was the first time we've seen someone use something like arxiv to do this. Brilliant idea, really. We will see more in the future no doubt.

adrian_b 3y ago

There is no such thing as ferromagnetic levitation (i.e. there is no stable position). Nevertheless, a piece of ferromagnetic material which has a permanent remanent magnetization (which is possible only for a subset of the ferromagnetic materials) when put on a magnet may take a position close to vertical, with one edge pressed on the magnet. It is very easy to verify if this is what you see by moving the piece of material to the other pole of the magnet, where it must take a reversed position, with the other edge pressed on the magnet. A diamagnetic material will be equally repelled by both poles of the magnet, so moving it between the poles will not change its behavior. A soft ferromagnetic material, like iron, will be equally attracted by both poles of the magnet. The explanations that iron impurities could be present in quantities so great as to form some unknown iron compounds with high coercivity and some unknown experimental circumstances could magnetize permanently the samples, are not significantly more credible than the claims that room-temperature superconductors do exist. In any case, anyone who has made some samples can verify easily whether they are ferromagnetic or diamagnetic. It would be more credible that someone has made fake claims, than that they have mistaken a ferromagnetic material for a diamagnetic material.

chmod600 3y ago
Thank you for the informative reply. Given that it's so easy for the experimenter to verify, you are saying that the most credible explanation is scientific fraud?

themagician 3y ago

Because all of the people publishing information about this were playing the options market. There was no need to actually educate anyone on anything. This was a scam. It worked. One person sees the opportunity it creating a hype train and gets a few buddies on board. Loads up on $1 calls for something they feel could be the next meme stock, like AMSC. Options start to load up on 7/18, just a few days before the 7/22 original drop on arxiv. You get the 7/22 drop and then uploads of grainy videos start to show up. Bank a few million in options contracts as the price of AMSC doubles overnight. Other people see the hype train leaving the station and start their own, using the same strategy. It's how you end up with a dozen potato quality videos and very specific information attached to the comment threads, "This is going to be HUGE for quantum computing @IonQ_Inc if true." We have seen these types of market manipulation scams in the past. This was the first time we've seen someone use something like arxiv to do this. Brilliant idea, really. We will see more in the future no doubt.