{"id":333,"date":"2011-11-11T12:54:39","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T19:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2011-12-27T13:25:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T20:25:00","slug":"superconductors-when-frogs-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"Superconductors? When frogs fly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/science.howstuffworks.com\/environmental\/energy\/superconductivity.htm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"Geim levitating frog\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/7b\/Frog_diamagnetic_levitation.jpg\" alt=\"levitating frog\" width=\"202\" height=\"191\" \/><\/a>One of the unwritten rules of physics says you can&#8217;t get something for nothing; at best, you can swing a fair exchange rate between\u00a0energy\u00a0in and energy out. The problem is heat: \u00a0Like an energy embezzler, it skims off the top of chemical reactions, physical systems and electrical circuits (which is why we can&#8217;t have perpetual motion machines).<\/p>\n<p>Superconductors don&#8217;t break the laws of thermodynamics, but they do manage to find some fairly large loopholes. Send current through a superconducting wire, and it loses no energy to resistance. Bend the wire into a loop, and it will hold charge indefinitely. Levitate it above a magnet, and the sun will devour the Earth before it will fall.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, it can levitate a frog.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/science.howstuffworks.com\/environmental\/energy\/superconductivity.htm\" target=\"_blank\">What is Superconductivity?<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/science.howstuffworks.com\/environmental\/energy\/superconductivity-quiz.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Quiz: How Super are Superconductors?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the unwritten rules of physics says you can&#8217;t get something for nothing; at best, you can swing a fair exchange rate between\u00a0energy\u00a0in and energy out. The problem is heat: \u00a0Like an energy embezzler, it skims off the top of chemical reactions, physical systems and electrical circuits (which is why we can&#8217;t have perpetual &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/?p=333\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Superconductors? When frogs fly<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,94,73,74,29,3,13],"tags":[181,178,180,175,171,55,5,177,174,183,176,182,77,179,173,172,184],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electromagnetism","category-engineering","category-materials","category-physics","category-quiz","category-science","category-technology","tag-bcs-theory","tag-conductance","tag-cooper-pairs","tag-fermilab","tag-heike-kamerlingh-onnes","tag-induction","tag-inventors","tag-maglev","tag-magnetism","tag-meissner-effect","tag-mri","tag-nobel-prize","tag-quantum","tag-quantum-mechanics","tag-resistance","tag-superconductivity","tag-vortex-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholasgerbis.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}