Tensegrity Levitation

There are no strings holding this tensegrity up.

Magnetic attraction 'floats' the top half section above the bottom section.

The top and bottom was sourced from a solar lighter, which was excess to requirements.

The shaft came from reusable metal straws.

Having assembled the parts, detailed plans were followed in its construction. :-)

These needed to be modified as it was found just having the top and bottom line from the middle members containing the magnetics, resulted in the top half rotating around itself. So they were replaced with lines from the top plate to the bottom plate. (These were later replaced with lines from the bottom plate to the 'floating' disk). The metal straws also had to be shortened as originally the height caused unstablity.

Neodymium Magnetics are enclosed in a couple of beer can bottoms to create the pull. Make sure to have opposite poles facing each other.

After a bit of trial and error, the shafts had to be cut down as been too tall lacked stability.

Attaching them to the disks housing the magnets, required a bit of baking soda to be added to the super glue to form a sturdy connection.

A spacer made from a some rolled aluminium sheet sourced from a beer can was used as a spacer to keep the magnetics seperated during assemble. Once the pull down lines had been attached the spacer was removed.

Thin nylon line was attached to the top with a triple knot.

To tighten the line mini windings cranks were created from bamboo skeweres to enable the tie down lines to be tensioned under the bottom base. These enabled the nylon to be tensioned by winding around the skewer. Tape was used to secure them in place.

Another setup was tried, where the thread was attached from the bottom to the lower disc to pull it down. This worked well.This allows a pencil to be passed from the top to the bottom.

As the base is curved, some blue-tac was used under the base so it would stand vertically with out bobbing about.