| ---
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| title: Hoverboard Calculator
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| emoji: "⚡"
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| colorFrom: blue
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| colorTo: indigo
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| sdk: gradio
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| sdk_version: "5.34.2"
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| app_file: app.py
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| pinned: false
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| license: mit
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| tags:
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| - build-small-hackathon
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| - track:backyard
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| - achievement:offbrand
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| - achievement:fieldnotes
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| - achievement:sharing
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| - gradio
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| ---
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|
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| # Hoverboard Calculator
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|
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| **Because Michael J. Fox Lied To Me (But It's Cool)**
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| Design your own acoustic frictionless surface. Not levitation — friction cancellation.
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| The distinction matters: it requires orders of magnitude less force.
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|
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| ## How It Works
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| Tile a surface with equilateral triangles. Place a 40kHz ultrasonic transducer at each vertex.
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| Three speakers converge on each triangle's centroid = one acoustic pressure node.
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| Stack enough nodes and a skateboard glides like it's on ice.
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| The default 6'x6' design: ~2,300 triangles, ~1,200 transducers, ~2,300 pressure nodes. $1,510 in parts.
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|
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| ## What You Get
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| - Full triangular grid calculation
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| - Bill of materials with real component costs
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| - Weight capacity analysis (what can ride on it)
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| - AI assessment of your design
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| - The knowledge that hoverboards are $1,510 away from existing
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|
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| ## The Physics
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| - Operating frequency: 40kHz (ultrasonic — inaudible)
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| - Wavelength: ~8.5mm
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| - Coherent addition: N triads = N² force (quadratic scaling)
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| - Published research confirms ~3g force per 40kHz node
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| - Friction cancellation needs far less force than levitation
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|
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| ## If This Ever Makes Money
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| First check goes to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He lied to us about 2015 but he's fighting the real fight.
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|
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| ## References
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| - Marzo et al. "Three-dimensional mid-air acoustic manipulation" (2014)
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| - Hirayama et al. "A volumetric display for visual, tactile and audio presentation" Nature (2019)
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| - Open Source Ultrasonic Phased Array — Hackaday.io
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|
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| ---
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| *"It's not a hoverboard. It's an acoustic air hockey table. And the grid is triangles, not holes."*
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|
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| ---
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| Part of [The Treehouse](https://huggingface.co/spaces/Wayfinder6/treehouse) — Build Small Hackathon 2026.
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| Free dev tools at [Hometree](https://heuremenforprofit.online): code analysis, AI agent monitoring, token-saving agreement scoring.
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| **Heuremen LLC** — Builder: Wayfinder6
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| ## Demo
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| - [Demo Video](https://youtu.be/xsYHw3lulVQ)
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|
