In this talk, courtesy of TED, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail — with no friction and with zero energy loss. The super-thin 3-inch disk can support 70,000 times its own weight whilst levitating.

In the talk, Almog explains that a superconductor is defined by two properties. The first is zero electrical resistance, and the second is the expulsion of a magnetic field from the interior of the superconductor. Electricity is the flow of electrons inside a material. Whilst flowing, these electrons collide with the atoms, and in these collisions they lose a certain amount of energy. They dissipate this energy in the form of heat. However, inside a superconductor there are no collisions, so there is no energy dissipation.