Throughout the history of Marvel comic, Thor’s mythical hammer, Mjolnir, can only be wielded by the worthy one. Though a handful, through storyline loop hole or not, managed to lift it. Anyways, the point is, nobody, not even superheroes who can lift 700 lbs with ease, can lift it. It is on this basis that electrical engineer Allen Pan, aka YouTuber Sufficiently Advanced, decided to built a “functioning” Mjolnir that only he who is worthy can lift. Thor isn’t real, but Allen Pan’s Real Mjolnir is, which kind of makes him a real life superhero?
Obviously, Pan’s iteration does not hail from Asgard, but born out of engineering ingenuity right here on Earth. So, no. There’s no sorcery involved. Instead, he packed it with a microwave oven transformer electromagnet, which when electricity passes through, creates a pretty strong magnetic hold on ferrous metal surface such as a locked manhole cover. But the coolest thing about Pan’s creation is, it is not normally magnetized.
The trick lies in the capacitive touch sensitive handle that’s rigged to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay, which serves as a switching device that trigger the magnetic hold. That makes the hammer virtually immobile when placed on any dead metal surface, except for Pan’s touch, or to be precise, Pan’s thumb. Not so discreetly embedded to the handle is a fingerprint sensor registered to Pan’s thumbprint. When he place his thumb over the sensor as he grab the handle, the magnet switches off, thus allowing him to pick it with ease.
But it’s no fun if no one else knows he is the worthy one and hence, Pan took to the streets of Venice Beach, California, where he challenged passing folks to pick up the Mjolnir. Ok, he has proved his point. He is the worthy one and now that’s left for him to do is flying around by the power of the Mjolnir, or perhaps, even command the lightning to do his bidding. So, watch out villains.
