IELTS Reading: Three Ways to Levitate a Magic Carpet

Vocabulary and key concepts from the IELTS Reading passage about levitation and invisibility cloaks.

Meta material

Exotic materials made from complex arrays of metal units and wires where the metal units are smaller than the wavelength.

Quantum fluctuations of empty space

The source of natural, smaller amounts of energy exploited by the latest levitation theories to levitate objects.

Ulf Leonhardt

Researcher at St Andrew's University, UK, who independently proposed that an invisibility cloak could be created from exotic materials in May 2006.

John Pendry

Researcher at Imperial College, London, who independently proposed the creation of an invisibility cloak from exotic materials in May 2006.

Invisibility cloak (levitation application)

A device made from exotic materials with abnormal optical properties that physicists believe could be used to levitate tiny objects.

Magnetic levitation (frog experiment)

A technique using the repulsive force of a giant magnet that necessitates large amounts of energy.

Microwave region

The specific region of the electromagnetic spectrum in which a cloaking device was manufactured later in 2006.