Electromagnet resistance?

[JWLeonhart]

I'm curious to know how strong two electromagnets would have to be to be able to resist each other and hold up an average human without touching each other.

Basically how strong would two magnets have to be to still be able to levitate and still hold up around 200lbs but at a decent distance.

I know you can take two normal magnets and turn the same poles towards each other to resist them, but I want to do this on a larger scale for a small project I have going on. I want to do something like a pogo stick... Imagine if you could bounce around on a pogo stick without a spring but with two magnets in a tube in place of it? Sounds like a more comfy ride lol.

I'm having alot of trouble finding information on electromagnet stuff anywhere and could really use some help on this.

I want to be able to have two magnets resist each other but hold up a decent amount of weight and not bottom out of each other... so say two magnets sitting 3" apart being able to hold up 200lbs without touching... is that possible or would I need magnets the size of jupiter with power supplies the size of mars?

Thank you for any help or input, i'd really appreciate anything!

 

[IRstuff]

Magnetism falls off as distance squared; magnets are too nonlinear for this sort of thing.

TTFN

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[hacksaw]

maglev uses this all the time

there are even low resistance conveyors that use this (permanent magnet arrays),

lots of information on that subject, and lots of fun!

 

[EdStainless]

You use permanent magnets on the platform and electromagnets to 'repel' it. Yes it take a lot of power. one half inch is not too bad, 4" would take ten times as much power.
control stability is another issues if you don't have mechanical restraints.
Play on a small scale to get a feel.

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Plymouth Tube

 

[hacksaw]

for strong ferrite magnets you get a few pounds per square inch in repulsion when the magnet faces "touch" .

to get past square-law limitations at several inches separation, you have to use two panels of disc magnets each a several feet square. You should easily support 200 pounds. The complication is that you need guide rails to keep the two panels stable and level.

 

[MagMike]

This was discussed before, in 2007.
thread340-197537