Thor and his characteristic hammer are famous in the entertainment community around the world. Only the right ruler of Asgard can wield it which is Thor himself. If anybody else tries to pick it up, he can’t even move it because it won’t submit to him. The cool hammer has seen several recreating attempts in the recent years, but this recent one from Allen Pan that was presented at his Youtube channel Sufficiently Advanced is by far the best. It only allows him to hold it while others tried and tried, but couldn’t remove it from its pedestal. He took it on the streets and challenged anyone to hold it from the ground. They huffed and puffed but couldn’t do it because of the clever piece of engineering.
The technology he used for the creation of this hammer is clever, yet quite simple. It doesn’t work on some mythical magic from the world of Thor, but a smart system that detects when a person has got hold of it using a capacitative touch sensor attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid Relay system. The hammer cannot be lifted by anybody due to the use of heavy magnetism. He took out a microwave oven’s electromagnet and the metal helmet gets permanently attached to any metal platform because of it. When a person grabs the hammer, it activates the relays through the capacitor and electromagnet is turned on Human power isn’t enough to move it so people keep trying but can’t lift it off the ground. But, it also means that he needs metallic surfaces to pull off his trick.
But, how does he himself lift it? By placing a fingerprint scanner on the handle of the hammer, it can recognize his thumbprints and the relay is turned off and the circuit is broken. Now Allen himself is able to lift it with ease.
Watch his video here and experience what it feels like to see a Thor hammer in real life!
