Neodymium magnets are immensely powerful--so much so that getting one accidentally stuck up your nose may require a hospital visit.
Grant Slatton, a software engineer, used the magnetic force of a set of magnets to good effect to build a levitating bed. When the magnets are set in opposition to each other--five in the frame and five in the base--they can hold his bodyweight in the air.
The guidewires keep the bed hovering in the proper spot. The magnets, Slatton explains, must be very close to each other to maintain repulsion.
Slatton appreciates the fame the bed brought him when he first shared it on the internet in 2012. But he also notes that the bed wasn't particularly comfortable.
The wires are needed because, as Earnshaw's theorem shows, ferromagnets cannot levitate a static object against gravity. Ha! I knew the college physics would come in useful!
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I've slept in a strong magnetic field. it's hard & uncomfortable. earthworms in a paper cup (full of damp dirt) next to a strong magnet will eat their way out through the paper on the opposite side to avoid the magnetism.
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