Diamagnetic levitation on a jar lid

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Member Cmorris posted these images of an elegantly simple levitation setup –

Folded business card behind magnets provides nice contrast. The pyrolytic graphite square floats about 2mm above the magnets, you can easily slide a business card all the way underneath without disturbing it.

– Link

For those interested in learning more –
To put it simply, diamagnetism is a substance’s tendency to become magnetized in the opposite direction of an externally applied magnetic field. Demonstrations of this action in organic materials can be visually stunning:

The frog that learned to fly – Link
Why does the frog fly? – Link

Related:

Diamagnetic levitation – Link

From the Maker store:

Magnetic sculpture kit – Link