The physics of diamagnetic levitation

TL;DR

This paper presents a simplified educational problem on diamagnetic levitation, guiding students through the physics with a ring-shaped model, originally designed for high school and early university physics competitions.

Contribution

It introduces a step-by-step educational approach to diamagnetic levitation physics using a simplified ring-shaped model for student learning.

Findings

Educational problem formulation for diamagnetic levitation

Step-by-step physics guidance for students

Simplified calculations with ring-shaped geometry

Abstract

We formulate a problem on diamagnetic levitation, which may be suitable for specialized high-school or first-year students in physical sciences. We guide the students, step-by-step, through the physics of diamagnetic levitation. The calculations are simplified by assuming a ring-shaped geometry of the diamagnetic object residing above a magnetic dipole. This problem was originally intended for the International Physics Olympiad 2016 (IPHO 2016), but was finally deemed surplus and therefore not set.