User:Uttam1982

What is a Superconductor?

An element, metallic alloy, or compound that will conduct electricity without any resistance at certain temperature is known as superconductor. Resistance of superconductors is practically zero at certain temperature and loss of energy due to resistance is zero in superconductors. That means in a closed loop circuit of superconductor flow of current will remain in motion forever unless hindered intentionally by any external resistive material. This property of certain material is known as superconductivity.

The History of Superconductors

Superconductors, a material that have zero resistance in reality to the flow of electricity, are one of the last great frontiers of scientific discovery. Superconductivity was first observed in mercury by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes of Lei den University in year 1911, when he cooled it to the temperature of liquid helium, 4 degrees Kelvin (-452F, -269C), and its resistance suddenly disappeared. The Kelvin scale represents an "absolute" scale of temperature. Thus, it was necessary for Onnes to come within 4 degrees of the coldest temperature that is theoretically attainable to witness the phenomenon of superconductivity. Later, in 1913, he won a Nobel Prize in physics for his research in this area.