How does Nikola Tesla's anti-gravity machine work?

Tesla's Anti-Gravity Machine

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• Tesla's anti-gravity machine has nothing to do with gravity. Electric current in a coil generates current in a ring. The current in the ring creates a magnetic field that opposes the magnetic field from the coil, and so the ring repels the coil and tries to exit off the top of the coil.

• Simple answer: It doesn't. That's just its name. Believe it or not, gravity and magnetism are two totally different and really unrelated phenomena. Tesla's "Anti-Gravity" machine uses magnetism. It's no more than a parlor trick, but back then, parlor tricks were popular. Anyway, here's a little lesson on the difference between gravity and magnetism. People get confused between the two probably because we hear about Earth's magnetic field and we assume that, well, magnets attract things, right? And humans and other objects are stuck to the Earth, so it must be a big magnet. Well, this is not true. The Earth has both a magnetic and a gravitational field. I'll admit that I don't know much about magnetism, but I can explain gravity for you. Gravity is simply the bending of space. See, whenever you have ANY matter, it creates a dent in space (meaning the actual space where something is, not the stuff in the space, but the space itself is bent and distorted), just like if you put a bowling ball on a trampoline, it would create a dent, except this dent is 3-dimensional. Anyway, magnetism is created by metals that have all their particles aligned (although it can be created through other ways), and I can't really explain it without showing you visually.

• Dynamic Theory of Gravity Unified Field: I am amazed that people who don't know much about magnetism dare to judge the work of a genius such was Dr. Nikola Tesla. The "Anti-Gravity" machine is, in fact, at the horizon of science. The modern models of unified field theory are just proving that the science we learned has to be reviewed from the different prospective, very much the same as the Dynamic Theory of Gravity, postulated by Dr. Nikola Tesla.

• In principle this approach is based on a rotating magnetic field, patented by Nikola Tesla, and it's coupling with a gravitational field.

• The "Believe it or not, gravity and magnetism are two totally different and really unrelated phenomena." is completely wrong. How do you think gravity works in the first place? The North and South Pole are attracting each other, creating a gravitational pull. The North and South Pole are both giant magnets of the Earth. Therefore, gravity and magnetism ARE the exact same thing.

• Gravity and magnetism are NOT the same thing. The Earth's magnetic field does not attract objects and pull them to its center. The Earth's magnetic field is like a giant magnet. It does have a North and South pole, just like a common laboratory magnet. The Earth's magnetic field is very weak, and generally only affects ferrous and magnetic materials. Gravity on the other hand affects all materials having mass. It affects all materials having mass in the same amount. Materials having more mass exhibit properties that cause them to 'weigh' more on a scale, and they feel heavier than materials having less mass. Magnetism has no effect on a material's mass. It only affects materials that have magnetic properties. The North and South Poles of the Earth do not create a gravitational pull. The enormous mass of the Earth is what creates a gravitational pull. If the Earth had no magnetic materials, it would have no magnetic poles, but it would still have gravity. Objects would still be attracted to its surface.
• Gravity has nothing to do with magnetism. Any object that has mass exerts a certain gravitational force on any other object in the universe.
• Everything is made up of materials which have an electric charge, even neutrons. There is not a thing in the universe which does not move, thus magnetism, which is present for any current, must have everything to do with gravity, even if modern physics wishes to split everything into disconnected categories. Before 1968, people didn't think the weak force and electromagnetism had anything to do with one another, but as a matter of fact they do. So even if you aren't actively involved in searching for the Unified Field Theory, don't be so caddy as to suppose it must not exist if Einstein couldn't find it.
  
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" - Albert Einstein, Plagiarist Extraordinaire

• Tesla was a genius in electromagnetic technology. He is principally responsible for the AC power networks that we use today (as opposed to Edison, who promoted DC, or direct current). His work had nothing to do with gravitation. However, he was a notorious showman, and doubtless named an electrodynamic contraption "anti-gravity" for theatrical effect. "Anti-gravity" is theatrically correct in that a sufficiently strong magnetic field can levitate a charged object against its weight within the limited range of that field. But that effect is not anti-gravitational any more than picking up a rock with your hand is anti-gravitational. Yet that rock is still just as effected by its gravitational attraction to earth's great mass. Where is the experimental evidence that magnetism and gravitation are directly related? There is none. Half-cracked theories can be spun out day and night. Only those backed by experimental evidence are plausible. The Earth's magnetic field is caused by the rotation of the iron core. Hot metal spinning fast equals a big magnetic field. Scientists are not sure exactly what causes gravity to work, although they theorise the Higg's boson, which is what the LHC will be partly used to research. Its effect, true enough, is like a bowling ball on a trampoline in all four dimensions at once. Gravity and electromagnetism are both fundamental forces (the others being the strong and weak nuclear forces; at high enough energy levels, electromagnetism and the weak force merge into the electroweak force, and at even higher energies all three merge). There is current research into a "grand unified theory" which combines all four into the same formulae. However, a discussion of this topic has nothing to do with actually answering the question at hand, which only takes a couple of sentences: Tesla's machine was not an antigravity machine, but a simple magnetic levitation device. It used two coils with magnetic fields that repel eah other and it produced the effect of "antigravity". A machine with the same effect can be built in a school laboratory or a home workshop. This was pointed out by the first two answers.

• Just because gravity and electromagnetism both pull does not mean they are the same thing. Gravity is caused by mass and attracts everything no matter the mass or distance. (Einstein theorised that gravity has some pull, even if the two objects are on the oposite sides of the universe). Gravity even attracts (bends) light! Magnetism is not caused by mass and does not attract everything. Magnets don't stick to you. Unlike gravity, magnets can also repel each other. Tesla's antigravity machine is based off the repulsive property of two magnetic fields. Gravity is also relatively weaker than magnetism. All matter has gravity, but only massive objects like the earth or the sun are big enough for the fields to be noticable by our standards.
• Gravity and the electromagnetic force are two of the four fundamental forces in the universe. They operate distinctly and separately in the world around us. It has been theorized that there might exist a superforce, and that this superforce combines these two fundamental forces with the other two fundamental forces in the universe, the strong and weak interactions (strong and weak nuclear forces). If this force exists, it will do so only in conditions of extreme energy density. There are hopes that the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) can demonstrate an increased level of unification of the forces, much as the W and Z particles, which mediate the weak interaction or weak force, were discovered at CERN. Having related that, Tesla did not build anything other than electromagnetic devices. His eccentric genius brought us the AC power grid we use worldwide today. What got his work censored was his development of an energy or particle beam weapon. Regardless of the nature of the device, only understanding the context, the idea that Tesla died in the middle of World War II, brings sense to the securing of his work. Tesla left "notes" for the energy/particle beam weapon and other devices, and it was the US Government that scooped them up. Certainly a case could be made for their actions allowing patent infringement or even the theft of intellectual property by others, but that is a separate issue. Tesla did not bring us an anti-gravity device or engine.

First answer by Needsomehelp. Last edit by Quirkyquantummechanic. Contributor trust: 1288 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 183 [recommend question]