they knew the concept of the wheel it just wasn't practical for them, mayan terrain was swamp and marshy so wheels wouldn't work and the andes where the incas lived were so steep they made wheels impossible.
Pretty sure the idea in BttF2 was that Marty didn’t have enough traction to push off water to move forward like he could over a solid surface. And that’s why Biff used a rocket. It didn’t require his feet to push off the ground.
Where the F##K is my F##king "FLYING CAR" I was promised by GM's Futurama 2 ride at the 1964- 65 New York World's Fair. Another fair goer Michio Kaku has also wondered where his flying car is. I may only have been 5 years old at the time I remember many parts of the fair, but mostly being promised a flying car and a car that you can drive on the land or upon water. I guess I will be dead before I get either of these.
Simon this may be my new favorite channel of yours, right next to MegaProjects, but i found it an hour ago and allready watched EVERY VIDEO! Thank you and you team for all the hard work you put in to your content. 💜
The magnetic hover board sounds really cool based on the sci-fi series Uglies by Scott Westerfield where they have dedicated hover board tracks, but also use train tracks and roller coaster tracks for a real thrill.
The Tech in San Jose, a science experience for kids and for IMAX movies did a Star Wars Tour in the 2014 period where they did have a hovercraft. It was more of a speeder than a hoverboard, and it had a magnetic metal plate area under it, only in the area it would 'fly'. It seemed like a cross between fanblade hovercraft and maglev, and it was really noisy. I rode it for 3 minutes. :) It was shaped like a wheelchair with a golf cart apron around it, and it had really no steering, or it was hard to steer. You would sit in it. Then it would have to recharge, so I think it must have been closer to a maglev thing. Also 'speeder' was a misnomer. It had a top speed of maybe 0.5 miles an hour, since it could not leave the rink it was in.
They exist, in special parks with metal floors and magnets on the board. Actually idk if they ever made more than one park or if it’s still open, but one did exist
I think inventing a true “hover” board would require the invention of fully functional (and miniaturized) repulsors; (think Iron Man, or the “Rogue Shadow” in Star Wars). Of course, I don’t know how this would work, given repulsors are much more powerful than fans or turbines.
@@joeyr7294 I get the same thought lol. I know Star Wars is *DEFINITELY* sci-fi and none of that stuff is likely to ever happen or be constructed; but I like to imagine something like a Venator Class space cruiser or “Rogue Shadow” type personal space craft zipping through the stars.
@@joeyr7294 that’s the unfortunate part of it all. Vsauce has an interesting and poignant video “what will we miss” iirc, and it touched on possible scientific advancements. I’m hoping cryogenics has a massive boom in the near future so I can be frozen 😂😂
@@b2mark914 the ion drives of today (learned something new) don’t work in atmospheric conditions, nor do the piddly things generate enough thrust to generate standard liftoff from any planet/moon/celestial object with significant gravity. As far as repulsorlifts go, I guess *”technically”* they exist, but in the case of the US, LCAC (hover craft) it requires huge engines, fuel costs, and an inflated skirt to avoid energy dissipation. One could also point to mag-lev trains...but they also require a type of “closed system” to avoid dissipation. My statement still stands. Until we develop repulsorlift technology that works on an open system, and/or ion drives/plasma propulsion engines; that will work on world, *and* can accelerate a ship off world unaided; a minuscule hover board like in B2TF is almost impossible.
I'd say when the human race figures out how to measure gravity maybe in some measurement like gravatrons then only can we get a point of creating antigravatrons thus getting antigravity
The Jimmy Kimmel 2015 bit with "Doc & Marty" is hilarious (and on RU-vid) with them reacting to what we don't have as well as what we do that couldn't have been predicted in the 80s.
Simon, this may be my new favorite channel that you do. I remember, as a kid, in the mid 1970's, being told flying cars were right around the corner. Even as a kid, I thought, "great, now traffic jams will be in the air." I feel the same about hover boards. It's a waste, and won't happen.
Flying cars are just too dangerous for normal people, otherwise we do sort of have them. Hoverboards would break lots of wrists, but no more than non-hover technology does. So it is more of a shame we couldnt crack that one (so far).
@@extragoogleaccount6061I think it’s more that the technology as we typically imagine it in sci-fi relies on some sort of antigravity or other static repulsive force that would make the device fail safe and require little fuel. It’s more accurate to say we just don’t know if there is actually a way to achieve this in physics, and the alternative is just an airplane or helicopter, which most people don’t have for all of the obvious reasons people usually list of cost, maintenance, expertise, and skill
Thanks for covering the hoverboard Kevin!! Back to the Future 2 was full of fun SciFi inventions. I feel Simons anger at it not existing yet, lol!!! Can you cover Star Treks replicator sometime? THATS the invention I cant wait to have!!!!
@@toddnolastname4485 I suspect it will sooner be made with nano assemblers on a surface, and the replicated object rising out of the surface. But ya, forcefields would be nice too
@@ThatWriterKevin I can't wait! Never been much of a trekkie, but replicators are something I'd love to hear high octane Simon ramble on about. Though saying that, hearing high octane Simon ramble on about anything is hilarious. I like to think an episode on functioning lightsabers from Star Wars would be an amazing watch too, even if Simon will have no idea what he's talking about for half the script.
Ok, overboards will never work, but magnetic levitation (once room temperature superconductors are discovered) could be used for handling heavy objects in factories or warehouses or wherever magnetic tracks can be installed without the need to modify or replace the public road network.
I saw this funny B movie called Daphne and Velma and a few kids had some awesome hover boards and I thought the same thing. When are they going to actually make a real hover board?
Love seeing Simon go off like that. There is a better and simpler way to do it with jets than what Zapata came up with and it would actually maneuver much more like a surfboard and would be more like that in size most likely. Anyone wanna fly like the Silver Surfer? Zapata has to use a complex computer system to adjust and vector thrust in order to fight the physics that would like very much to flip you head first into the ground on his modern jet version of that old army upside down helicopter. (That really is all his is, after all.) Zapata's an idiot. He really should have realized by now that you can use those physics to your advantage instead of fighting them. Four static engines for lift is all you need. It's all about where and how they're placed. Thrust balancing might require a very simple computer like a drone would have. Forward/reverse thrust and braking with a small ducted reversible pitch propeller (like some hovercraft have) driven by a small engine that runs on the same fuel as the jets. (I used to think of a fifth jet for forward thrust but I think the prop is a better idea now.) I've had the basic design in my brain since the days when I used to see ads in the Popular Science/Mechanics magazines for instructions on turning small jet engines on a metal lathe. Those would never have produced sufficient thrust back then. But modern small jets certainly can as proved by Zapata, the guy with the "Iron Man" flight suit, and the best of them - the guy that finally built a real jet (not rocket) pack. An electric, drone style version could be done but energy density and weight would make for much shorter flights. It's really simple, actually. It's just about 'center of gravity'. I just don't have the funds to make it happen. Any rich backers around? LOL
Remember asking my Grandad, who excelled in woodwork, to build me a hover board for Christmas when i was aged 6 in 1992. Needless to say there wasnt a hover board under the tree that year!
I would probably settle for the self lacing shoes in affordable options. I know they made some special ones that sold for crazy amounts of money but the shoes would be cool if they could be obtainable to the general public without costing as much as a small home.
TLDW: Best way to make a real hoverboard is use superconductor magnets. Of course that only works when it's cooled with LN2 and the track also has the same or similar strength magnets or metal, it won't work on some random surface. Of course control electronics that control not just speed and direction but also keep you balanced without feeling you are in a log-rolling contest aren't trivial either. In short if there ever is a commercial hoverboard released resembling what's in the movies expect it to cost more than a car (impractical and unaffordable to most).
Thanks for shitting all over my dreams, Simon. Really appreciate that as much as Danny in the basement does. (I can so relate to Danny, even more now!)
It took 130 years to perfect the hoverboard after Doc Brown tired of Clara constantly nagging him to see the future sold the original 2015 hoverboard to JP Morgan in 1885 to finance the building of Docs time train, also leading to the development of flying cars by 2015.
The hoverboard requires power for forward motion. McFly couldn't McGo because he had nothing to push against to move forward. Gravity only pulls down so anti-gravity can only push up, not in any side direction.
It seems like Marty's hoverboard is powered by the Earth's magnetic field and then amplified somehow by those 2 disks on the bottom of the board to give it enough magnetic force to repulse from the ground and have enough natural energy for someone to stand on it to ride. The first person to invent that is gonna be a multi-billionaire and change the world, unless the powers to be gets to the inventor first.
I never thought the hoverboard in BTTF was magnetic. I always thought they had discovered antigravity and found a way to make small pockets of antigravity under the board to make it float instead of sinking. The thing keeping it from launching into the sky would be the person standing on it and when you'd go to get off the board it deactivates the antigravity so the board just lands normally
Thing abaout magnetics and monorails that people often forget... Mass and gravity play a big part in how they move. Try that same speed wthout the rails, weight, or anchors, and see how fast you hurl off into the mesosphere.
I agree. I laughed at the crap they were peddling years ago, as hover boards. They aren't hover boards!! . We will need to figure out how to harness that natural repelling force of atoms, if we are ever going to make a real hover board. Oh and we will need something like an Arc Reactor. The amount of power something like that will require is way way way way beyond our ability sth the moment.
I built a small hovercraft as a senior project in high school back in 2004. We have the tech, it wouldnt be pretty and it might be blocky.... but it can be done.... hell, partner and i used plywood, trashbags, duct tape, a vacuum motor, and leaf blower, and a chair..... ours plugged into the wall to power it though
The company Hovertech actually sold hoverboard plans based on promising technology (I think the idea was having columns of negatively charged ions to keep it afloat), but they made it clear it wasn’t quite in working order and invited the user to work out the bugs for themselves. I did buy the plans, but I’m not a physicist or electrical engineer.
Whenever I see the time, money, effort, and tech innovations involved in something like this, for just a second I get excited that we have solved the issues in the world that have plagued us forever. Then I realize we still have all our problems because....toys. Imagine if our priorities were a little different....
If we can condense a power source, and use electric magnets that can be design to increase or decrease forces at particular points on the board in response to the body's movement, while ride over a metal skate park... Probably as close as we'll get. It still would not be as functional as a traditional modern skateboard that actually manages most of its tricks because of friction and the lack of friction when popped up in the air.
Hoverboards are for skateboard enthusiasts! I just want a personal travel craft that can fly. Just for quick trips. Personal helicopters, life sized drones, or jet packs, have been in development for years. They should be in production by now, dammit!
Got to note, the magnetic boards have to be used above non-ferrous plates. They are essentially induction motors, making magnetic fields they can repel - but only under the spinning magnets.
Saying what we are all thinking......and all wanting....... Listen to Fact Boy......we need the Hoverboards we were promised when young and still full of hopes and dreams 🥹 why cruel world 😂
the issue with hover boards is that there is no friction with the ground.. meaning, you cant turn or stop or do anything but glide in a straight line regardless of spin or attempts at turning.. simple physics..
Fuel cells and/or battery technology could provide energy to the hover "motors". Today there are wireless charging options for mobile phones and some other equipment. Then there is gravity, the anti version, still not known if possible (or not) to create "motors" that have a short range effect towards solid objects.
Yeah, I felt the same way about those "hoverboards". However, I recently realized that they let the rider have the appearance of hovering along. So sort of a win? Eh.
2:07 I still remember being in grade school; INSISTING that hoverboards were real because George Zemeckis admitted it. I think I even said; “well they could make magnetic sidewalks if they had to.”
The room temperature super conductor problem has been solved. There's even a scientific paper about it out there. All you need to do is lower the temperature of the room and it works just fine. ... :P
Tbf room temperature superconductors if we can figure them out could make them much more viable. Youd have to have a massive or intensely powerful electromagnet however to actually hover in earths magnetic field. If we were to develop that youd likely see people lose arms and legs when the electromagnets slam into a metal surface with no warning and explode from the intensity of the impact. Look up videos of people trying to slowly attach powerful magnets for how badly it can go wrong, the things shatter instantly.
As for why the hover-board couldn’t move above water in BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 - this is because the hover-board that Marty was using was one whose technology was just for keeping it afloat - while he had to use his foot on the ground to push forward - just as with the skateboards from Marty’s own time. When the over-board was over water, the levitation (courtesy of the hoverboard’s technology) still worked -- but when Marty tried to push forward with his foot, he found that he was just pushing against water, which wasn’t enough when his foot was barely dipping below the surface. The guys who were chasing him, however, had hover-boards that didn’t just use technology to stay afloat - but also technology to propel them forward. Those hoverboards, therefore, had no problem at all moving over water. Have I clarified the odd behavior of Marty’s hover-board over water?
No joke Simon, I think I know how to build one for real without a track, so no quantum locking or fans. All I need is room temp superconductors and new kind of air battery and I can do the rest.
Another drawback to consider is even without friction or steerability, a hoverboard would have a lot of mass, either for power supplies, magnets, or both. So you've got mass to get moving, a lot of foot power invested, and an object in motion tends to remain in motion, so good luck stopping a board that weighs in at around a cinderblock's weight and mass.
Ok if I remember the movie and even if I didn't you've shown what they look like!! It has something to do with electo magnet within the board because it still works for in all the time lines!! Even the wild west just like the Delorean still can fly in all time lines
