Superconductors

[Jtvd78]

Hey. I'm new here. I am in 8th grade science, and my teacher assigned a topic for each student to research and make a project on. None of us in the class know anything about the topics. I received Superconductors.

I have to answer 4 questions:

1) What was the scientific question they were asking?

2)What did the scientists think before?

3) How did they make their discovery?

4) How did their discovery change what other scientists did or thought?

 

For 1, I am pretty sure that the question was: What happens to mercury when it is cooled to super low temperatures.

For 2, I cannot find anything about what scientists thought before.

For 3, I can find this info on my own

For 4, I may need a little help.

 

I am not asking for whole answers, but just a little push in the right direction; Especially for #2. Also, I need to site every source. Wikipedia is not allowed.

 

Thanks

-Jtvd78

[skyhook]

I guess you'll have to read a couple of basic articles about semiconductors and quote from them. Silicon is a semiconductor, and it is said to behave like something intermediate between conductors and insulators. If you look at the periodic table of elements, there are a bunch of elements there that are group near each other, silicon, geranium, arsenic ...and maybe carbon too, which the technology may be still in development. you may need to research the basic definition of semiconductor, I probably have missed out some parts.

 

man...I don't know what the scientists think before, maybe someone else knows the history of it, or its inventor.

 

Many years ago, the transistors or some other components/devices are very big size. It is a vacuum valve, which I forgot the actual name, It is still in use in some devices like maybe inside Hi-Fi speaker amplifiers. They made the earliest computer with these vacuum valves which make the computer very big size, maybe the size of one room. However the innovations with semiconductor solid state components replaced the vacuum valve, and made computers and electronic devices become smaller and smaller.

OOPS!! I just realised that I made a huge mistake...LOL.. Superconductor ! not semiconductor... sorry about this, I would like to eat my own words.

Edited November 8, 2010 by skyhook

[Jtvd78]

Please! I really need some help. My teacher said that I could use info about what scientists believed about regular conductors before the discovery of superconductors.

[imatfaal]

Jtvd78 - I am not sure what age grade 8 is but I am guessing mid-teens.

 

Your questions as follows

 

1) What was the scientific question they were asking?

I think this is best answered by looking at some of the big problems/questions that we want to solve. Maybe start by explaining a little about current/voltage/resistance and make the obvious point that power generation places are geographically distant from consumption areas. Perhaps wiki-ing/googling electricity transmission and looking at losses. On a more scientific need - try googling particle accelerators - most of the sites for particle accelerators will explain why they need superconductors.

2)What did the scientists think before?

there are lots of web resources on the history of superconductivity - and I am sure that you can pick up hints of what was previously thought there. Perhaps pick up some old physic texts books from local/school library - or from google books perhaps. the older the book the more likely that the previous thought will be covered. If you are lucky enough to find a book from 1900ish - that's before they were even discovered

3) How did they make their discovery?

again loads on web. there have been nobel prizes for superconductivity research - the nobel site has some really good - easy to read - write ups. Lots of encyclopedias will concentrate on the history because they fear going into too much scientific depth - so again easy pickings. remember to stress this is ongoing research. perhaps find out if this was a discovery in which the theorists imagined a solution which someone later found the real-world material - or whether someone discovered a strange property of a material and this then had to be explained (do you see the difference?)

4) How did their discovery change what other scientists did or thought?

much more difficult. on the "did" side you can go back to particle accelerators or google uses of superconductors. the "thought" side of the question I suppose means a quick dip into the theory of WHY and HOW superconductivity works; this could rapidly become technical so you will need to search for nice sources that take things slowly. this research will also allow you to fill in some of the gaps in the "what did scientists think before"

Just a few ideas - good luck

[gangoorsg]

they are conductors which can conduct with very low resistance or say have zero resistance when cooled to absolute zero . they are temperature Dependant.

you can get the answers from the site http://www.superconductors.org or http://physics.about.com or http://www.wikipedia.com . you will get the answers to al your quest from site1, 2 that is mentioned .. gud luck for ur assignment

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey. I'm new here. I am in 8th grade science, and my teacher assigned a topic for each student to research and make a project on. None of us in the class know anything about the topics. I received Superconductors.

I have to answer 4 questions:

1) What was the scientific question they were asking?

2)What did the scientists think before?

3) How did they make their discovery?

4) How did their discovery change what other scientists did or thought?

 

For 1, I am pretty sure that the question was: What happens to mercury when it is cooled to super low temperatures.

For 2, I cannot find anything about what scientists thought before.

For 3, I can find this info on my own

For 4, I may need a little help.

 

I am not asking for whole answers, but just a little push in the right direction; Especially for #2. Also, I need to site every source. Wikipedia is not allowed.

 

Thanks

-Jtvd78

Edited November 12, 2010 by gangoorsg