Talk:Superconducters
A work in progress by the renowned author Ian Sebastian.
Main Idea
This page will consist of the discussion for Superconductors: what they are, how they work, and (most importantly) what you'll need to learn about them for the class.
Before we bridge the topic of superconductors, let us consider the properties of an ordinary conductor. As we know, steady electric flow in a substance only happens when the atoms in that substance are close together. When the atoms are spaced far apart (as is the case with a gas) it takes a massive electric force to make electrons move across vast distances. This can be easily observed in thunderstorms, if air was a better conductor, electrons could flow freely from the clouds to the ground, and we would never see lightning. Now compare the atoms in air compared to the atoms in a copper bar. The atoms in the bar are tightly packed next to each other while the atoms in a gas move around randomly due to their immense energy. From this analysis, it can be seen that the state of the particle is related to how well electricity flows, and so the question arises: What would happen to a conductor if the particles were closer together? We would expect that electrons would flow easier, and we would be right. If a person were to look at a circuit at room temperature as opposed to a circuit in a freezer, one would notice that the bulb in the freezer glows brighter than the one at room temperature. Why? Think of Ohm's law:
Emf = IR
Where emf is the voltage of the battery in the circuit in volts, I is the current in Amps, and R is the resistance in Ohms. When the conductor is cooled, the individual atoms in the conductor grow closer together which makes it easier for electrons to move. One could say that there's less resisting the movement because the resistance decreases. Now let's say we connected the circuit to a 9V battery. In the freezer and out of the freezer, that sucker is still 9V. So if our Emf is constant and R is decreased, that could only mean that the current, I, increased. Once would expect that as we approach 0 degrees Kelvin (as cold as physically possible) that resistance would approach zero. However, what's surprising is that this isn't the case for certain conductors. This is the basis for superconductors.
Superconductors are regular conductors that have a peculiar property once the temperature is cooled to a certain temperature. This temperature is called the Critical Temperature and it differs for every superconductor. Once a proper conductor reaches this temperature, the resistance becomes zero not approximately zero as we would expect but literal zero. This means that once a current is induced into the system, it will never stop because there's nothing to stop it! Imagining the possibilities of a never-ending stream of current highlights exactly why superconductors are the "super" big deal that they are. But since everything we've dealt with thus far involving electricity deals with current in terms of resistance, we need to go over a few rules that pertain specifically to superconductors.
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