Question

Simple diamagnetic materials like (pyrolytic) graphite and Bismuth can be made to levitate in ~1 Tesla magnetic fields. What allows very small tomatoes and frogs to be levitated in the extreme (16T) magnetic fields of a Bitter magnet?

Answer 1

Hey there!

Levitation can be almost be done from smaller to bigger stuffs. Almost anything. This phenomenon happens with diamagnetic levitation. Where our imagination goes wrong is that we classify materials simply as magnetic and non magnetic. But that is not entirely correct or accurate as we speak. That is exactly why some materials start levitating when higher magnetic field is given.

Every materials have atoms. Atoms has electrons. So when it comes to charges all the materials have some electric charge in them. This naturally means that magnetic field can also be generated with the electric field. But, the charges are arranged in random and hence the magnetic fields from the other atoms all come together and cancel out each other. But when a magnetic field is introduced, the magnetic field from these materials align with each other to that of the magnetic field. This is the exact concept of Ferro magnetism. This is why things can be levitated. Anything from food to living bodies can be levitated because they all have charge. What matters is the amount of charge required to levitate them. If you really want to levitate these materials like tomatoes or onions or frogs or whatever it may be, they require a magnetic field which could be about 1000 to 1500 times to that of a fridge magnet. That is about 16 to 20 Tesla as you mentioned.

I hope the explanation helps... Feel free to comment and discuss further... Cheers :)