I have to tell you a secret… when I was in 10th grade, my geeky girlfriend and I designed what we thought was pretty clever: a superconductor roller coaster, which we imagined would float effortlessly above its magnetic track.
Of course, our roller coaster existed only on paper, because yttrium barium copper oxide ceramics had not quite been discovered. (If you’re wondering what that is, keep reading…)
You see, there’s this really cool effect that happens when you cool certain materials waaaaay down…
Did you notice how it was smoking in the video? That’s because it was so cold! Now watch what happens when you put a really neat idea in physics together with someone who’s got the mindset of a kid:
Wouldn’t it be really fun to make one of these? I know we’re not going to be able to make the levitating hockey puck, but I am putting together a class now on how to wire up motors (like the motors that keep the puck moving around the track in the second video), and we’re going to cover the first part of how this thing works by looking deep into the field of electricity.
If you’re wondering why we don’t make cars or trains yet out of these materials, it’s the usual problem with superconductors, which is that they need to be incredibly COLD in order to exhibit superconductive properties.
The material that the puck was made out of: yttrium barium copper oxide (YBa2Cu3O7), was the first compound that used liquid nitrogen to make it so cold. Although it may not seem like much, this was a HUGE leap, because it meant that you no longer needed big cryogenic labs in order to levitate objects above a magnet.
I’ll let you know more about the upcoming electricity class soon… check back for more details!
