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I watched a television documentary on superconductors. The summary was that in a ring of neodymium magnets, the superconductor would spin around on top of them levitating whilst it was frozen with liquid nitrogen. Once it got too warm it would drop.

Can I assume that, provided the superconductor is kept frozen, it can be used to generate electricity?

Would it be possible to put one of those devices into space, in order for it to stay frozen without liquid nitrogen, convert the generated power into AC, and then using a transformer send it the 61 miles down a cable back towards Earth? This would then be free energy. After the initial push it should continue spinning at that speed forever because of space.

I can assume there might be some problems making this device follow the Earth around?

Sorry people, I only recently got into physics and I am still overexcited with new possibilities before I have really got my teeth into the subject. I promise this will be my last poorly thought out question!

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No, this would not work. In order to extract energy from the system, you would need to use the spinning superconductor to generate an electromagnetic field. This electromagnetic field would exert a force on the superconductor, causing it to slow down and lose energy.

In fact, you will never be able to extract more energy from the superconductor than the energy you added when you set it in motion.

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