Thursday, October 20, 2011
Super Cool Video!
Take a minute to watch this amazing video. Isn't this awesome!? Unfortunately, we can't get results like this with normal materials. The physicists involved refer to the disc as a "superconductor." What, exactly, is a superconductor, and why is it necessary for this effect to work?
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A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance.
ReplyDeleteA superconductor is when Zinc, Aluminum, Tin, or Mercury are cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures of almost zero Kelvin. It works because these materials have no resistance against elecricity, meaning electrons can travel through them freely, they can carry large amounts of electrical current for long periods of time without losing any heat energy.
ReplyDeleteCorey Smykowski
A super conductor is an element, inter-metallic alloy, or compound that will conduct electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. Resistance is undesirable because it produces losses in the energy flowing through the material.
ReplyDeleteI believe I understand a superconductor to be a material that when frozen to almost absolute zero with liquid nitrogen can have a electric current applied to it and the current will stay within the material until another force removes the current. While the current is in the superconductor if a magnet is placed near it, the superconductor creates a Magnetic field that is exactly opposite of the other magnet that you wish to make levitate. This, therefore, creates a almost frictionless environment for the item to levitate through the air.
ReplyDeleteA super conducter is a material that conducts electricity. It also can transport electrons from one atom to another atom with no resistence. this is nessecary because there is no resistence with electricity. this makes it levitate with no friction. Mason Smeznik
ReplyDelete1. A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance. In order to reach conductivity, no heat, sound, or other form of energy would be released from the material. The temperature with which a material becomes superconductive is called the “critical temperature.” Most materials can only reach superconductivity at an extremely low energy state or a very low temperature.
ReplyDelete2. I found that for this particular experiment, the “floating disk” is a sapphire crystal that was coated with a thin layer of a ceramic material called yttrium barium copper oxide. When it is at room temperature, it has no magnetic or electrical properties. The disk becomes a superconductor below 301 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the superconductor is so thin, the magnetic field can penetrate, causing flux tubes. These tubes lock the superconductor in midair. This results in quantum locking, which is the effect we see with the superconductor on the track.
Thanks for the comments this week.
ReplyDeleteA superconductor is an element or metallic alloy which, when cooled to near absolute zero, dramatically lose all electrical resistance. In principle, superconductors can allow electrical current to flow without any energy loss (although, in practice, an ideal superconductor is very hard to produce). This type of current is called a super current.
ReplyDeleteOnce a material is exposed to extremely low temperatures (which vary depending on the used material) it becomes superconductive – a state that allows a material to become diamagnetic and posses zero resistance to low applied currents when there is no magnetic field present or if the applied field does not exceed a critical value.
A super conductor is a material that can transport electrons from one atom to another. This can be done without any resistance. In other words, it is when zero electrical existance occurs in certain materials below a set temperature. Superconductors are necessary because they produce a stronger magnetic field than an electro-magnet and also because energy can be lost in normal copper wire because of the resistance in the wire. With superconductors there is rather a pocket of air seperating the two materials.
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