Nowadays, the popularity of hoverboards are getting to a point where every kid in a household wants it as merely a toy/gizmo. So, where did the term “Hoverboard” come from and how does it work? At first, I would like to clear up a point on this matter. The hoverboards we Asians buy for our kids (and many from the Western world too) aren’t ACTUAL hoverboards. Well, hover literally means to levitate, basically being off the ground even if by an inch and be in a floating position. Now, I know what you all must be thinking, how in the hell can a board levitate, and someone can even use it for traveling;
It is possible, it's simple physics. To “hover” or “Float” a few inches off the ground, an upward force or thrust is required to lift the body up against the gravitational pull of the earth. A hoverboard does exactly that, it has powerful jet-propelled fans and uses the strength of the airflow vertically downwards and causes the board to stay up above. So, it’s basically a helicopter without the rotor blades; it can go up and down and from side to side.
However, this requires a lot of energy which is not efficient and thus it was never made for public consumption. But many tech and engineering enthusiasts built their own ones and testes them out. Notable, a company named “Hendo” made hoverboard with a different technology, however, it required a conducting surface below it all the time so that never made the market. However, famous skateboarder Tony Hawk used it and he was pretty happy about it. Now, let’s get back to the point. As I was saying, the hoverboards we usually talk about aren’t the skywalker boards for cheap I just explained above. These ones are basically self-balancing scooters, Segway or simply “mini-scooters”.
Now the mixing up of this with the hoverboard has occurred because one of the most popular brands making these mini scooters is also named “Hoverboard”. That’s why people started calling every one of these hoverboards. But people, especially in South Asia can’t tell the difference; actually, they are unaware of the “true” hoverboard. Although these hoverboards are getting popular day by day all over the world, a matter of concern is “Hovering” around people’s minds ever since pun intended. As these hoverboard scooters don’t have a steering wheel and have no protection at all, children are prone to accidents if not careful. There are many cases where the riders have been injured severely and died due to lack of control. So, this is an important matter to be addressed as many other small automated mini vehicles are adding up to the traffic system.
Okay, we have talked a lot about the new law for hoverboard and why it’s so important. Now, let’s talk about the price and where we might find these skywalker boards for cheap. Well, most western countries use American or English built hoverboards. But here in South Asia, some Chinese retailers and online shops are getting really popular these days. For example, on Alibaba, Techland, Startech you can get a decent one within 60-100 US dollars. And these come with many features like Bluetooth connectivity, in-built speakers, charging ports and LED effects. So, everyone, even people from the third world countries can purchase this fun gizmo. Now in the USA, you can also find these for cheap sometimes, on many occasions Amazon gives a bulk discount. But for the most part, it's expensive in these countries. However, as many Chinese brands are coming up with many more models with low production costs due to their being highly efficient day by day, we are expected to see more affordable ones in the future.