The instructions to get the top going were exceptionally clear and concise. My kids love moving their hands around the floating top and also enjoy trying to catch it mid-air.
One recommendation: Set the base up on a carpeted floor. My first few spins sent the top flying around the room and I was afraid of breaking it.
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I received one of these for Christmas. My friend was the first to get it working, but now both of us can do it. It's truly amazing when it DOES work. (And, yes, it is testy!)Best Deals for Levitron Ultimate
As promised, there is significant patience required to get this going. But once accomplished, it's a fascinating demonstration of magnetic suspension.Viewers might find it useful to look up videos on youtube that show how this works.
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This is an amazing device. It's quite incredible--once you get it to work. My elven-year-old son had a delightful time putting it together, but there is a serious learning curve when it comes to making the device actually work. While an adult has the patience required to learn the technique, my preteen became board after several tries and gave up. Still, it makes for an effective demonstration of several scientific concepts--once you figure out how to make it work . . .Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Levitron Ultimate
This toy is very educational and quite amazing to see working. However, this toy is rather hard to adjust for sustained levitation.But it IS possible with a little patience and understanding.
Here's a quick few tips.
Tuning the top:
First, start out with your top a little overly heavy with the 2 smaller brass washers and the 2 large red and blue plastic washers and both the black rubber O-rings. This is most certainly too heavy, but it's easier to get the top flying tuning it from a heavy weight than starting with a lighter weight. When the top is too light, it will "bounce" up and out of the magnetic field too erratically making it very difficult to determine the proper leveling of the base (see below). Being too heavy you'll find it does not want to lift off the clear plastic offset tray as you slowly lift the tray and the spinning top up to the equilibrium point of the magnetic field. One at a time, remove the one of the washers and try again. The kit provides several brass and plastic washers of various sizes to EXACTLY tune the top to within a few micrograms. Through experimentation you will find the perfect weight that JUST lifts the top off the offset plate. You will also discover that temperature will change the magnetic fields of both the top and the base, so each time you decide to play with the toy, it may need to be slightly rebalanced/tuned.
Leveling the base:
Once you have the top close to perfect as to weight, you need to perfectly level the base. If the top tends to "fall" out of the magnetic field in one direction consistently, raise that side with the knurled legs of the base. Try a quarter turn and try again. The base has indicators what direction needs to be turned to raise and lower.
There are many YouTube videos showing people lifting the offset tray and top into the magnetic field's equilibrium point.
Again, understand up front, the top needs to be PRECISELY balanced with the plastic and brass washers. The base also must be PERFECTLY LEVEL. You may very well get frustrated with JUST how exact this must be. But once you have achieved an exact balance and a perfectly level base, the top will levitate for 2 minutes or more.
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