What is Conductivity & Superconductivity as Fast as Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
589 words · ~2 min read
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we all know that electronic devices output heat especially when they're
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working hard too much of which can result in sweaty Palms melted chocolates
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and even catastrophic failure but do you know why it's because the circuits and
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wires inside an electronic device don't conduct electricity perfectly they have
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a certain amount of electrical resistance which is the tendency for a
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material to resist the flow of electrons this resistance manifests itself as heat
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and sometimes light this is a good thing for something like a stove top electric
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heater light bulb or a toaster with without electrical resistance your
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toaster wouldn't toast which would make it one of the world's least useful
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inventions ever but most of the time you don't want your electronics to heat up
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imagine for a moment that your house used tungsten wires that's the same
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material used for incandescent light bulbs your whole house would burn to the
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ground that's why most wires are made out of copper which conducts electricity
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quite well and without much resistance aluminum copper silver and gold are
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great conductors of electricity but gold and silver are rare So aluminum and
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copper are often used because they're less
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expensive but even these highly conductive materials still don't conduct
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electricity perfectly which is why electronic devices like computers get so
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hot without all those heat sinks fans radiators and heat pipes your computer
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would heat up so significantly that it would basically melt or catch fire
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electrical resistance is a big issue for pretty much anything that uses
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electricity modern power lines use thick cables and high voltage to reduce
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electrical resistance but a lot of electricity is still wasted it just
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turns into heat heat and floats away if only there was a way to conduct
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electricity with absolutely no electrical resistance that's what a
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super conductor is superconductors are able to conduct electricity perfectly
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with no resistance and no heating of any kind and they are so cool
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superconducting wires are used for things that require massive amounts of
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electricity like inside MRI machines power plants and partical accelerators
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and superconducting magnets look like something straight out of Science
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Fiction since they move only along their magnetic field and never against it they
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can hover in the air indefinitely sounds awesome right but there's a huge catch
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for super conductivity to work you need incredibly low temperatures near
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absolute zero which requires the use of liquid nitrogen or helium this greatly
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restricts how and where superconductors can be used today that's why scientists
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have been working to create superconductors that work at higher and
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higher temperatures if we had room temperature superconductors modern
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technology would be changed forever remember all those heat sinks fans
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radiators and heat pipes with a superconducting computer you won't need
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any of that anymore Electronics would get smaller and use less electricity
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more efficiently this is one of the great scientific advancements that I
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hope I get to see in my lifetime maybe we'll get that back to the future
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hoverboard after all anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this episode as fast as
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possible like it if you liked it dislike it if you disliked and leave a comment
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telling us what you would do with a hoverboard and also let us know how you
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feel about having alternative hosts on fast as possible thanks for watching and
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don't forget to subscribe great job Teran