Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir has been recreated by an engineer. In Marvel comics, it can be lifted only by the worthy. For the unworthy, i.e., literally everyone except Thor and the odd someone else from time to time, Mjolnir simply cannot be lifted off the ground,
One Marvel fan, an electrical engineer Allen Pan, decided to turn this myth into a fact. He built his own hammer of Thor and challenged people to lift it. But, no one was worthy enough to succeed!
It is the hammer’s electromagnetic property and a fingerprint scanner that makes it immoveable.
Inside the head of his Mjolnir, Allen packed a microwave oven transformer electromagnet, which uses electricity to produce a magnetic field. This creates a very strong magnetic pull, strong enough that the hammer, when placed on a metal surface feels too heavy to lift.
The handle is attached to a capacitive touch sensor, which in turn is attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay, which serves as a switching device. As soon as someone grasps the handle, the electromagnets switch on, attaching the hammer to the metal surface.
However, the hammer can be turned off via a fingerprint sensor keyed to Pan’s thumbprint. When Pan grasps the hammer, the magnets switch on. When he moves his thumb over the sensor, it switches off again, allowing Pan to lift the hammer.
Pan took his invention to the streets of Venice Beach, California, where he challenged unsuspecting passersby to lift it.
Now he just has to find a way to make it call down the lightning and return to his hand when he throws it.