Hoverboard!

I have always been fasinated by the hoverboard in back to the future. Reading this made me a bit more happy on the possibility of riding one before I die! There are several theories about how the Hoverboard could work. Space Magnetics (originally named Hovertech) experimented with ferrofluid force fields [1], attempting to ionize a column of air interacting with a magnetic fluid, forming a bubble which the board could rest on. This technology was never made to work, as the ferrofluid simply stuck to the sides of its casing when activated. Another possible way is by use of geomagnetics, the act of repelling against the earth's magnetic field. So far there have been no signifigant advances toward completing a working device that can do this. It would require a large magnetic repulsion, as the Earth's magnetic field is very weak. There is one technology however that shows real promise in the field. HoverTech claims that they will be able to turn a column of air into a conductive plasma, run an electrical current through it, and repel against that field with powerful magnets. This is a technology called Plasmagnetic Levitation (formerly Optomagnetic Suspension, changed by Hovertech to reflect the significance of plasma to the theorem). Read more on it on wikipedia.org