BARFLY FRIDAY: OAK BOTTLE LEVITATING CUPS HELP PROVE CLARKE'S THIRD LAW

Images via Oak Bottle​

This is the Levitating Cup from Oak Bottle and it's concrete proof that Clarke's third law is true. Thanks to a little advanced technology, this glass appears to magically float above its base, allowing you to pour drinks mid-air and briefly impress your drunk friends after you trick them into spending a couple of awkward hours in your living room under the pretense of "hanging out". According to Oak Bottle, this levitation is due to a phenomenon called quantum locking (also known as flux pinning), a close relative of the Meissner effect. However, quantum locking requires a type-II superconductor that has been cooled with liquid nitrogen, not a mere A/C adapter, meaning that the advanced technology driving this bit of apparent magic is more likely to be plain old magnetic levitation, specifically electromagnetic suspension, in which electromagnets are used to stabilize the levitation effect of a set of permanent magnets, hence the inclusion of the aforementioned A/C adapter as a power source. A cynical person might be lead to suspect that the only reason quantum locking was invoked in the product copy is due to the popularity of all things "quantum" in the zeitgeist, much like the ignorant shoehorning of nanotechnology into every science fiction franchise in the past decade. But far be it from me to call anyone a liar. Plus, the floating cup thing really is a neat trick, even if it has nothing to do with quantum locking ​-RB