Thread: Super Conductors

i always heard of the term superconductor alot, wherever i read Quantum mechanics articles and many others. What puzzles me, is the fact that i cant make much sense out of what they actually mean, and how they work.

can anyone give me an outline, or just a brief description of how superconductors work??
thanks~

A super conductor is a conductor with very little or no electrical resistence. Most super-conductors work at only super-cool temperatures.

If you are looking for a more scientific and mathematical definition then someone else will have to asnwer this question.

Originally Posted by Heinsbergrelatz

i always heard of the term superconductor alot, wherever i read Quantum mechanics articles and many others. What puzzles me, is the fact that i cant make much sense out of what they actually mean, and how they work.

can anyone give me an outline, or just a brief description of how superconductors work??
thanks~

A superconductor is a material with ZERO (not just very close) electrical resistance.

The explanation is not simple, and in some cases not understood. In many materials it is explained throught the mechanism of "Cooper pairs".

John Bardeen received his second Nobel Prize in physics for work on the theoretical basis for superconductivity.


http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ids/scond.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_pair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity

It comes up in talks on QM because it can't be explained without QM at all, at least not as far as I know.

Originally Posted by MagiMaster

It comes up in talks on QM because it can't be explained without QM at all, at least not as far as I know.

Conductivity, super or otherwise, is determined by the solid state structure of matter, and that can only be addressed via quantum mechanics.