Thursday, August 1, 2013

Superconductor


We've learned that if something is kind of a good conductor but not really good,
we call it a semiconductor.

What about something that's a really super awesome conductor?

That's called a superconductor!

Superconductors don't work like good conductors or semiconductors do,
they're usually something normal like metal, but made really super freezing cold.

Not cold like when you go sledding in the snow, (about -10 degrees fahrenheit)
but so cold that you couldn't survive outside. (-300 degrees!).
Colder even than Antarctica, the coldest place in the world!

When the superconducting metal is that cold, it pushes out a magnetic field
that is so strong it can even push other magnets up off the ground!
superconductor
(from: wikipedia - superconductivity)