IGX

Holy fucking batman shit!

How can a super-thin, three-inch disk levitate something 70,000 times its own weight? In a riveting, futuristic demonstration, Boaz Almog shows how a phenomenon known as quantum locking allows a superconductor disk to float over a magnetic rail -- completely frictionlessly and with zero energy loss.

http://on.ted.com/Almog

Is this legit or a metaphor for your last Texas camping trip?

"Electricity is flow of electrons." False.

While a neat demonstration, what's the big deal?

Didn't click, when can I expect my hover-car?

ecalpal wrote:"Electricity is flow of electrons." False.

Explain.

Sua Sponte wrote:

ecalpal wrote:"Electricity is flow of electrons." False.

Explain.

He heard something cool in his GED class that completely trivialized this TED lecture

Just as I suspected.

I'd like to hear his explanation for that, too, if he's up for it, just out of curiosity.

By definition, inside a conductor electrons are free to move, basically one per atom. In DC, electrons do flow, but not very fast. There is a combination of electron drift and exchange of energy between electrons but the energy speed outpaces the actual electron flow by many orders of magnitude. In AC, because the current is reversing very fast, the electrons don't flow, but vibrate back and forth in a small area.

Schlegel wrote:By definition, inside a conductor electrons are free to move, basically one per atom. In DC, electrons do flow, but not very fast. There is a combination of electron drift and exchange of energy between electrons but the energy speed outpaces the actual electron flow by many orders of magnitude. In AC, because the current is reversing very fast, the electrons don't flow, but vibrate back and forth in a small area.

Not completely right, but close enough for IGx purposes. The definition of a conductor isn't quite right. Nor is the electron count necessarily so. The electron velocity without impressed voltage is thermal, but the scattering events are there anyway. Under impressed voltage the scattering events are what keep the drift velocity low.

To the question of flow, if the electrons aren't flowing in AC, how is power delivered? BTW, the current need not be reversing very fast for the current to be AC. Any frequency will do just fine-that fact being a pointer to the answer to the question.

Schlegel wrote:By definition, inside a conductor electrons are free to move, basically one per atom. In DC, electrons do flow, but not very fast. There is a combination of electron drift and exchange of energy between electrons but the energy speed outpaces the actual electron flow by many orders of magnitude. In AC, because the current is reversing very fast, the electrons don't flow, but vibrate back and forth in a small area.

oh shut up, Smegel

Don't get all butthurt. You can still pretend your model train sets are superconductor cryogenic railway systems of the future.