After a month of teasing, rumors and speculation, Lexus has unveiled an exciting pet project to the world: a real, working hoverboard. It’s not quite to live up to expectations Back to the future but it’s an amazing mechanism nonetheless.

Here is a video of the board in action:

How the Lexus Hoverboard works

To start with, the video is a little misleading: it looks like the hoverboard is gliding through a typical cement skateboard park, but nothing could be further from the truth. In the video, you cannot see the powerful magnets hidden under the surface, which is extremely important for the operation of the board in general.

Still — magnets or no magnets — this hoverboard .

Here’s how it works: The technology relies on a special quantum effect that occurs between superconductors and magnets, which allows heavy objects to levitate in a stable manner. The effect is known as «quantum blocking». Remember the Hendo hoverboard ? The technology is similar, but Lexus has chosen to use a superconductor instead of the oscillating magnetic field that Hendo uses. According to Eric Palm, Deputy Director of the National Laboratory of High Magnetic Fields of the former Soviet Union.

“Instead, you have something called the Meissner effect, which essentially says that when you take a magnetic field near a superconductor, it induces a current in that superconductor and creates essentially a magnetic image field on the other side of the superconductor.” […]. current, but since it is a superconductor, the currents do not decay. This way you don’t need oscillating magnetic fields. You can have a magnet that rises above a superconductor, or vice versa, a superconductor that rises above a magnet.”

Here is a video to help you visualize this:

Have you noticed cool steam flowing down the sides of the board? It’s not just a cosmetic effect — it’s liquid nitrogen that cools superconductors down to -321 degrees Fahrenheit. When liquid nitrogen runs out on the board, the superconductors heat up and they stop hanging.