DIAMAGNETIC LEVITATION – HISTORICAL MILESTONES

Nowadays scientists can easily levitate diamagnetic substances in the powerful field of a superconducting magnet. Pyrolytic graphite and strong NdFeB permanent magnets can be bought by every levitation enthusiast for building his own levitation device. But the way towards this was long. First of all diamagnetism had to be discovered and investigated in detail. Then the theoretical fundament for diamagnetic levitation had to be set. And of course suitable technologies had to be developed and tested for practical demonstrations of diamagnetic levitation. At all it took 161 years from discovery of diamagnetism to the first practical levitation demonstration. This paper gives an overview on this historical development and additionally emphasises the most important achievements from the very beginning up to now. 1