Page 182 - 15 Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius

CHAPTER 13

Levitation Machine

PROJECT SIZE: Medium

SKILL LEVEL: ★★★✩

WHEN PLANNING CAMPAIGNS for world domination,
the Evil Genius likes to have his globe of the Earth
float in the air above his desk, suspended by
invisible anti-gravity forces (Figure 13-1).

Actually it’s a ping-pong ball painted to look
like a globe, and it’s suspended using something
called electromagnetic levitation. Keeping the
globe in place requires careful control of the
current to the electromagnet, so this project uses an
Arduino interface board that is programmed from
your Mac, PC, or Linux computer.
The Arduino is a great platform for this kind of
situation, and the Evil Genius has used this as the
basis for many projects, including that in Chapter 8
and one later in Chapter 15. Any interested Evil
Geniuses may wish to check out the book 30
Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius by the same
author and publisher as this book.

What You Will Need

You will need the following components to build
this project. They are listed in the Parts Bin on the
next page.

Figure 13-1 The anti-gravity machine in action

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