Superconductors, high levitation

Figure 2 The Meissner Effect, or the levitation of a strong magnet by the internal diamagnetic field of a high Te superconductor. 

FIGURE 3.43 High-temperature superconductors may make magnetically levitated vehicles a reality. This picture shows an experimental train in Japan. 

The discovery of high-temperature superconductors is surely one of the most exciting scientific developments in the last 20 years. It has stimulated an enormous amount of research in chemistry, physics, and materials science that could some day lead to a world of superfast computers, magnetically levitated trains, and power lines that carry electric current without loss of energy. 

What new developments the future holds nobody knows for certain. In electronics people will try to miniaturise electric equipment even further. Non-functional, ceramic packaging will be converted into functional components. For this new ceramic materials are necessary, as are ways to process them. High-temperature superconductors will lead to magnetic levitation craft, cheap electricity and improved MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). 

Twenty-five years ago, Stanford s William Little startled the general public with his predictions of plastic materials that had no electrical resistance at high temperatures, room-temperature superconductors, flying carpets, superconducting skis, trains that levitated over tracks and glided smoothly along at 300 miles per hour, and frictionless electrical transmission lines. 

The levitation of a magnet above a high-temperature superconductor immersed in liquid nitrogen. 

Figure 12.37 The levitating power of a superconducting oxide. A magnet is suspended above a cooled high-temperature superconductor. Someday, this phenomenon may be used to levitate trains above their tracks for quiet, fast travel.

In the 1980s, a ceramic form of copper(I) oxide was found to have superconducting properties at temperatures higher than previously known superconductors. Superconductors have the ability to carry an electric current virtually without resistance. Once a current is initiated in a superconductor, it continues to travel through the material essentially forever. Superconductor research may lead to new technologies, from cheaper electrical power to magnetically levitated high-speed trains. 

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