Hoverboards Are Real!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

W

wdw_

Rockee
I've been a huge fan of the Back To The Future trilogy since I was about 7. I've always loved the idea of the hoverboard. It's seemed like the coolest thing ever. Today I bought the BTTF 3-disk set. I popped in the 2nd disk and watched one of the featurettes. I found out how they made the boards look like they were hovering. THEY GOT BOARDS THAT HOVERED!

Check this out:

Hoverboard Clip (2.9MB)
Requires 3ivxhttp://www.3ivx.com/download/

Turns out that hoverboards have been around for years, but parent groups don't let people sell them. A hoverboard would be the coolest present ever. Every person would want one. Who wouldn't want a hoverboard?! A hoverboard has always just been a fantasy to me. Now that I find out they're real...I'm just a little pissed off. I want my hoverboard.:(
 
yeah, santa claus is real to! ;)

i think robert zemeckis just about pulled your leg off there.

if you watch back to the future two closely, you can actually see the cables that held up the "hoverboards" in some scenes.

if i recall, they are most noticeable in the scenes over water.

from what i understand, some scenes did use magnets to make the "hoverboard" hover but none where people were standing on them.

watch the scene closely where m j fox throws down the "hoverboard" in your clip, you can see the cable! :D

sorry to smash your dreams.

the blow dryer jacket and self inflatable nikes, now those were real!
 
watch the scene closely where m j fox throws down the "hoverboard" in your clip, you can see the cable!
Click to expand...
Everything in my clip is unaltered video taken from a TV camera off to the side. If there was a cable you'd be able to see it. I just went through that clip on the DVD frame by frame and no hint of a cable shows up.

Also, you don't joke in a documentary unless the viewer understands that you're joking. There was no hint of Robert joking while he was talking.

One more thing. They just can't put actors on tiny flying boards, tell them to fly across a huge pond and expect to get results anywhere close to expectation. They did use wires to make Griff and his gang fly over the camera and into the building and they probably did use wires on most of the water scene.
 
When the movie came out I was in Middle school I think. And our English teacher brought in an article saying the same thing. That they were real, but lots of people lobbied to stop them from being sold.

That said. The movie also did you cables to keep the actors up. That does not make the boards any less real. Just mean they wanted a good shot without 1000 takes. Not everyone has great balance.

Matthew
 
I can't even believe it's necessary to point these things out, but:

Motorcycles are dangerous, but are available. So are personal airplanes. So are hang-gliders. So are bunji-jumping gear. All are available - just not to kids. For those of us over 18, sky's the limit. We're free to smash our brains out, and the manufacturers would waste no time offering us new ways to do it, parents be damned.

Hovering 'snowboards' would be HUGE - imagine that you could 'board down any hill, anywhere, at any time of year? Not a chance that market would be passed up.

Plus, if the technology existed to make the things work, there'd be a million other uses for them - hovering wheelchairs, hovering hospital gurneys, hovering cargo dollies, etc.

But the physics DON'T work - how exactly do you steer a hovering board by leaning? It has no friction with the ground, and would squirt right out from under you. Skateboards steer that way because of the way the wheel mounts are designed. Surfboards steer that way because of friction against the water. To achieve the same effect with air would require a MUCH larger surface area - or a velocity so high, you'd be swept right off the board.

Zemeckis is having fun with you, and if you had an English teacher who believed they were real, she's a twit.
 
"Motorcycles are dangerous, but are available. So are personal airplanes. So are hang-gliders. So are bunji-jumping gear. All are available - just not to kids. For those of us over 18, sky's the limit. We're free to smash our brains out, and the manufacturers would waste no time offering us new ways to do it, parents be damned."

Things are not that easy. There is much debate about wether the Seigway should be aloud on public streets and it is not unsafe. So just to say that if your over 18 the sky is the limit. is somewhat wrong. People are very weird when it comes to item that may run on the sidewalk with pedestrians.

"But the physics DON'T work - how exactly do you steer a hovering board by leaning? It has no friction with the ground, and would squirt right out from under you. Skateboards steer that way because of the way the wheel mounts are designed. Surfboards steer that way because of friction against the water. To achieve the same effect with air would require a MUCH larger surface area - or a velocity so high, you'd be swept right off the board."

I agree. I went looking through some stuff. The boards in the movie are not real. But many companies proposed prototypes for them, but no patents ever made. Many people still work on it today. Including what many people think will work. A plasma board? Not sure what it is. But you can read about it.

More Info::
http://www.hovertech.com/products/index.html
http://www.hovertech.com/

Matthew
 
Interesting links. Sounds like they are seriously working on it.

If they get it working, I predict plenty of media coverage, whether or not they are ever actually offered for sale. I doubt very much we'll have to wait and hear about it in a movie commentary track.

It also bears mentioning that there ARE hovercraft vehicles out there - they're huge and noisy and use fuel at an obscene rate, but they exist. They maneuver using 'thrusters' - steerable air jets. They do NOT lean - indeed, too much leaning would disrupt the air cushion, and could be disastrous.
 
I saw a behind the scene kinda thing for Back to the Future a while back, they showed the scenes that had the Hoverboards in it with wires.

Then some guy took a hoverboard and said "wouldn't it be great if they where real", threw it on the floor - "SLAMN" no hover. :(
 
you can see the "guide" wire when m j fox throws the "hoverboard" down. it has something connected to it that moves around his mid section. looks like two white ribbons. they go up and down as the "hoverboard" balances itself on the ground.
 
hehe

see the circled marks on the guide wire? watch how they move in sync with the "hoverboard" as he throws it down.

there is no conspiracy keeping hoverboards out of hands of children by lobbying parents.

look how zemeckis grins as he talks. hes pulling your leg.

its would be like spielberg saying they used real dinosaurs for jurassic park.
 

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Things are not that easy. There is much debate about wether the Seigway should be aloud on public streets and it is not unsafe. So just to say that if your over 18 the sky is the limit. is somewhat wrong. People are very weird when it comes to item that may run on the sidewalk with pedestrians.
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that would be a matter for local law, not for whether something was manufactured. if they could make them work, they would be doing so already.

sorry to bust your bubble wdw_, but the chances of these being real while you're still young enough to enjoy them are pretty slim. maybe your kids will get something similar thought. they are in the future after all. :D

but on the plus side, er.. mac plus side that is - congrats on winning the give away. you're going to get to do some time traveling at least - back to when i learned to use a mac. :p
 
I heard once about a guy who took his kids to see a show called "Dinosaurs live", featuring impressive animatronic dinos.

But he angrily demanded his money back, when he realized they weren't real.

"D#@$ it, the sign says Dinosaurs LIVE!!"
 
OK. itanium, I checked the DVD and you're right. there is a wire, but there is only one wire. one wire can't keep a board suspended in the air. I'll bet if you were to throw down a frictionless hovering board it wouldn't really just stop where it landed. it would keep moving forward. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. That's Newton's fist law of motion. So they had to make it stop so Marty could just hop on. how could they do this? They would use a wire.
 
this is absurd and maybe you're just being silly but there is no such thing as a personal hoverboard like those seen in back to the future two. zemeckis was being funny.

if there is only one wire which is stopping it from continuing to go forward when he throws it down, then what is stopping it from going side to side or backwards? :rolleyes: since the wire is pulling against the hoverboard, shouldn't it go backwards since a negative force has been applied to it and there is no friction?

also for the sake of silliness, if this thing is magnetic, then friction is being applied. it should be able to slowdown on its own. it would be similar to a boat in water.

there are other wires, you just cant see them. if you could see them, then what would be the point?

this is just silly. give me a break!
 
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