The few videos of lk99 show it reacting to a singular magnet. A property of superconductors that apparently diamagnetic materials don't have.
The few videos of lk99 show it reacting to a singular magnet. A property of superconductors that apparently diamagnetic materials don't have.
The diamagnetism, importantly this means repulsion of both poles simultaneously and equally (this is how you can have these magnets spin, a regular magnet repels same poles and attracts opposites, diamagnets repel both poles), is simply a characteristic of the superconductor, but it alone would just repel the object off.
Here is a timestamped link to NileRed’s YBCO video that visually describes the flux pinning:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7gyZJg5nc&t=1887
And here’s a timestamped link to Ben Krasnow’s Applied Science YBCO video where he shows a close up of the crystal’s cross section that shows the imperfections that allow the magnetic field through for the pinning effect:
Timestamp: https://youtu.be/RS7gyZJg5nc?t=2496
It goes to show how difficult manufacture, or in the case of the LK-99 news cycle “reproduction”, of these materials really is, and YBCO was a well documented area of superconductor manufacture.
There is a video from the Korean team showing LK99 moving when both poles of a large magnet is swung nearby, however the effect was a bit weak to conclusive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA&t=90
If we develop methods of creating these superconductors with perfect crystal composition then there will only be the repulsion, allowing for levitation in a bowl shaped superconductor, but this “hanging levitation” would be impossible.
Perhaps we will develop manufacturing techniques to induce specific imperfections into the material to ensure predictable flux pinning; it seems like a useful, and wildly interesting side effect.
It'll react fine to a singular magnet, it just won't be stable enough to levitate - that's why the videos show casing replication of diamagnetism show it standing on end.