Scientists create real-life hover board

Scientists from Tel-Aviv University’s Superconductivity Group have created an object that will levitate in mid-air.

The investigation into quantum levitation was demonstrated by the researchers at the recent ASTC Annual Conference in Baltimore.

While it may appear to be a magic trick, there is clear science behind the group's ability to float the disc.

The levitating device is a single crystal sapphire wafer coated with a ceramic-like material called yttrium barium copper oxide - at room temperature it has no special qualities, but at -185 degrees C it becomes a superconductor.

Scientists involved in the project explained that superconductivity and magnetism repel each other.

"When possible, the superconductor will expel all the magnetic field from inside. This is the Meissner effect. In our case, since the superconductor is extremely thin, the magnetic field does penetrate, however, it does that in discrete quantities ... called flux tubes," they explained.

These flux tubes 'trap' the disc in mid-air over the magnet, causing it to levitate, like a hover board, for as long as it is over a magnetic field.