This will be my third and final blog post of my research on the infamous Maglev Train. It is with deepest regret that I must inform you that I will not be able to recreate a live scenario of superconductivity in action. The requirements are simply too difficult and too expensive to acquire here. Instead, I will simply create a detailed power point of my research.
In my previous post, I explained how the Maglev Train was capable of levitation and I introduced something called a superconductor. This post will describe much more clearly on what a superconductor is and how it levitates.
Superconductors were by discovered by a Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. But it is only till recent years that scientists were capable of utilizing it.
Superconductivity is a quantum state of matter, therefore involving some amount of quantum physics. What makes superconductors so different is that it has zero electrical resistance and it expels magnetic fields from it’s interior. This can only occur under a certain critical temperature.
A superconductor levitates when it comes in contact with a magnetic field. Superconductors do not like magnetic fields. So they attempt to expel the magnetic field from the inside by circulating currents. This process is not perfect however, causing strands of magnetic field, called fluxons, to be trapped inside the superconductor. What happens after that is the superconductor doesn’t like the strands of magnetic field left inside because they move around. This movement causes energy to dissipate, breaking the superconductivity state. So what it does is it locks these strands of magnetic field in place. But by doing so, it actually also locks itself in place. So in truth, this so-called levitation is actually quantum locking, which is the superconductor being lock in place in mid air.
Thank you for reading my posts. It has been a wonderful time sharing my research.
Justin
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