PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

DEMONSTRATION OF DIAMAGNETIC
LEVITATION
Submitted by:

NAME: Vanya Mahajan

THE ORCHID SCHOOL, PUNE

Certificate
This is to certify that Vanya Mahajan of Class XII has successfully completed the
Physics Investigatory Project in the partial fulfilment of the curriculum of the
Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) leading to the award of the Annual
Examination of the year 2022-23.

External Examiner Teacher-In-Charge

(Priya Bhargava)

Unit Head Principal

(Divya Bhatnagar) (Sangeeta Kapoor)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude and sincere thanks to my Physics
Teacher, Ms Priya Bhargava, for her constant valuable guidance and constructive
inputs which enhanced the quality of this research. This project could not have
been completed successfully without her help.

I would also like to thank Ms Divya Bhatnagar for her encouragement and
support and our respected principal, Ms Sangeeta Kapoor, for allowing me to
work on such an intriguing project that has enriched our knowledge.

I take special pleasure in acknowledging our lab assistant for his willingness
in providing the necessary lab equipment.

Lastly, I would like to thank our parents for their love and support throughout.

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 CONTENTS

SR NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. AIM PAGE 5

2. THEORY PAGE 5

3. MATERIALS REQUIRED PAGE 7

4. PROCEDURE PAGE 8

5. OBSERVATION PAGE 9

6. PRECAUTIONS PAGE 10

7. CONCLUSION PAGE 11

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 12

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DEMONSTRATION
OF
DIAMAGNETIC
LEVITATION

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AIM

To demonstrate diamagnetic levitation in an untraditional manner: levitating a graphite pencil

THEORY

➢ MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

Every substance has some magnetic properties associated with it. The origin of these
properties lies in the electrons. Each electron in an atom behaves like a tiny magnet. Its
magnetic moment originates from two types of motions:

1. Orbital motion of the electron around the nucleus.

An electron being a charged particle, and undergoing these motions can be considered a small
loop of current with a magnetic moment. Thus, each electron has a permanent spin and an
orbital magnetic moment associated with it. The magnitude of this magnetic moment is very
small and is measured in the unit called Bohr Magneton (BM) where,

1 BM = 9.27*10-24 A m2

The Magnetic Susceptibility χ of a material is the property used for the classification of
materials into Diamagnetic, Paramagnetic, and Ferromagnetic substances. The material is
diamagnetic if the value of χ is small and negative, paramagnetic if the value of χ is small and
positive and ferromagnetic if the value is large and positive.

➢ DIAMAGNETISM
Diamagnetic substances are those which tend to move from the stronger to the weaker part
of the external magnetic field. They weaken the magnetic field slightly, which means that
diamagnetic matter is slightly repelled from the magnet.

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 FIGURE 1- Behaviour of magnetic field

lines near a diamagnetic substance

Diamagnetic substances are the ones in which the resultant magnetic moment in an atom is
zero. When a magnetic field is applied, those electrons having an orbital magnetic moment in
the same direction slow down and those in the opposite direction speed up. This happens due
to induced current following Lenz’s law.

Some diamagnetic materials are bismuth, copper, lead, silicon, nitrogen (at STP), water and
sodium chloride. Diamagnetism is present in all substances. However, the effect is so weak in
most cases that it gets shifted by other effects like paramagnetism, ferromagnetism, etc.

The most exotic diamagnetic materials are Superconductors. These are metals, cooled to very
low temperatures which exhibit both perfect conductivity and perfect diamagnetism. Here
the field lines are completely expelled (χ = –1 and µr = 0). A superconductor repels a magnet
and (by Newton’s third law) is repelled by the magnet. The phenomenon of perfect
diamagnetism in superconductors is called the Meissner effect, after the name of its
discoverer.

In a suitable arrangement, the repulsive diamagnetic forces can compensate for the
gravitational force floating above the magnets in the air. This fact underlies the principle of
Diamagnetic Levitation. A suitable material for this diamagnetic levitation is graphite (usually
called pyrolytic graphite), which is strongly diamagnetic as well as light. Superconducting
magnets can be gainfully exploited in a variety of situations, for example, for running
magnetically levitated superfast trains.

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MATERIALS REQUIRED

1. L-shaped iron profile with dimensions 1 × 1 cm and a length of at least 15 cm

2. Neodymium magnets with a diameter of 8 mm and thickness of about 4 mm (at least

3. Mechanical pencil graphite leads

FIGURE 2

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PROCEDURE

1. Making a track for lead: Put the magnets in the iron bars so that their poles alternate.
At the same time when one magnet is inserted, the opposite magnet should lay on the
inserted one.

FIGURE 3- North pole of the magnets is marked with a cross

2. At the end of the track, place two magnets on top of each other so that the lead does
not run out.

FIGURE 4

3. Place the pencil lead in the magnet track.

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OBSERVATION

1. If we put a pencil lead into the trough, it will float freely about 0.5 mm above the
magnets.

FIGURE 5: Side view of lead hovering in magnet trough

2. This way, we can also partially demonstrate a motion without friction.

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PRECAUTIONS

1. Magnets with a diameter of up to 8 mm have proven useful for demonstration.

2. Some graphite leads contain traces of iron. Because the repulsive diamagnetic force is
quite small compared to the force with which iron is attracted to magnets, it is
necessary to choose leads that do not contain trace amounts of iron.

3. When moving, the lead skips the gap between the magnets, so the gaps must not be
too large.

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CONCLUSION

As we have seen, Diamagnetic Levitation is a method by which an object is suspended with

FIGURE 6- Maglev Trains

Other applications include Contactless Melting, Magnetic Bearings and more recently in the
field of Microrobotics.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. PHYSICS: Part 1 -Textbook for Class XII- published by NCERT

2. http://physicsexperiments.eu/

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/

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