In October of 2014, a company by the name of Hendo announced a “hoverboard.” While I won’t call the hoverboard a fake or a total lie, the advertising for it is very misleading, and its abilities are extremely limited.
How does the Hendo Hoverboard work?
The way Hendo’s hoverboard works is based on Lenz’s Law, which states:
“An induced electromotive force (emf) always gives rise to a current whose magnetic field opposes the original change in magnetic flux.”
The hoverboard either has electromagnets or spinning arrays of permanent magnets (which Hendo calls “hover engines”) in it that create a constantly changing magnetic field. This magnetic field induces a current in the – as Hendo calls – “surface substrate” below it. Because of Lenz’s Law, this current creates an opposing magnetic field that repels the hoverboard, allowing it to hover. This is called electrodynamic suspension, and has been in use since the 1950s.
So why is it worthless?
The problem that makes this hoverboard completely useless as a hoverboard is that electrodynamic suspension will only work above a non-ferromagnetic conductive “surface substrate” (such as aluminum or copper or gold). Even under this special condition, the hoverboard can only hover about an inch above the ground, and has a battery life of only 15 minutes1. If you live where the streets are paved with gold and everything is within 15 minutes away, this hoverboard is for you.
But I’m not writing this article just because this hoverboard is hilariously useless. In Hendo’s promotional video on Kickstarter they state:
“. . . Imagine a vehicle with all the freedom of a car, and all the efficiency of a high speed train. With our hover engines, that is now possible. . . .”
This statement is completely false because of the reasons I’ve already explained. On top of that, nowhere in Hendo’s video do they acknowledge the limitations of their invention. Although, to be fair, on their Kickstarter campaign and on Arx Pax’s website (the parent company) they do briefly mention that the required “surface substrate” has to be a non-ferromagnetic conductor. Despite being vague, Hendo’s website also says that metal sheets are used to “give the hoverboard ‘flight.’”
Nevertheless, Hendo and its hoverboard were widely talked about by the media, and TIME.com even listed it as one of the “25 Best Inventions of 2014.”
In conclusion, I feel that Hendo and its parent company, Arx Pax, have been very misleading (to put it mildly) about the capabilities of their extremely limited “hoverboard” and “hover engines.”
That is all. Until next time, this has been Caleb Investigates.
Footnotes and notes:
115 minute battery life as stated by TIME.com.
Sadly, I didn’t think of writing this article back when it would have been more relevant. I was reminded of the Hendo hoverboard when Lexus released a teaser video of their own hoverboard, which is nothing more than a publicity stunt in my opinion. Even if it uses superconductors, it would still have all the same limitations as the Hendo hoverboard.