Hoverboards may not be as comfortable as carpets, but they rely on superconductors and magnets, which combine to repel the force of gravity and lift an object above the ground.
The sheets' rippling then controls thin pockets of air and propels itself forwards and backwards.īut furthering the idea of magnetic “flying” are the popular hoverboards. In 2011, researchers at Princeton University developed a prototype “flying carpet” of electrified plastic that imitates a magic rug by lifting sheets of conductive plastic with waves of electrical current. The concept may not be so far from the truth. Made from a special type of clay with magnetic properties-since Earth is a magnet-, it held the ability to hover several hundreds of feet above the ground. Original legends discuss a flying carpet woven on an ordinary loom, but (through alchemical processes) its dyes held spectacular powers. And Joseph of Cupertino so regularly levitated during Mass that after his canonization the church made him the patron saint of flying.īut one particular element of defying gravity has filtered through plenty of fantastical stories: the magical flying carpet. Yet there are stories that circulate in all parts of the world describing those who seem to have mastered ways to slip its bonds. As a basic force of the universe, it keeps cosmos spinning and apples falling toward the earth. Historians have argued that Newton’s alchemical investigations helped yield one of his fundamental breakthroughs in physics: his demonstration that the multiple colors produced by a prism could be reconstituted into white light.Īnd while alchemy is not necessarily considered a science today, alchemists’ experiments were a precursor to modern chemistry and helped lead to discoveries that proved essential for pharmacology and metallurgy. There were plenty of theoretical and observed reasons at the time to take the principles of alchemy seriously, to believe that compounds could be broken down into their basic constituents and those constituents then reconfigured into other, more desirable substances. Despite his widespread work as a physicist and mathematician, Newton also harbored a fascination for alchemy and wrote extensively on the subject, even mentioning famed French alchemist Nicolas Flamel in his notes. One famous (and maybe surprising) investigator of alchemy was Sir Isaac Newton, a culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. The modern word "alchemy" comes from the Arabic word "al kemia," which incorporated a spectrum of knowledge of chemical properties and practices from ancient times. And they hoped to fashion a homunculus, or an artificial man. They wanted to find an elixir for immortality. They sought a way to transform iron, lead, tin and copper into gold or silver. Practitioners set out to do three seemingly simple things. Long before alchemy appeared in the pages of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, people viewed it as a serious branch of science and philosophy.
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