Things Which Are Cool.
1. Superconducting electric vehicles! Pink tentacle reports that "Sumitomo Electric has developed what is being called the world’s first automobile powered by a superconducting motor." The comments on his blog made me laugh out loud, but I suspect my friend's list would, for the most part, give me the ***blank stare*** so I will give you the 30 second version:
-superconductors have no electrical resistance! (hence, inherently cool... bad pun for reynardin ... all since jokes are inherently corny - it's a law of the universe). The problem is that most of the unusual metals involved must be cooled to near absolute zero (−273.15 C or 0 K) which means that to get the possibly fantastic energy savings using superconductors in all circuits and energy delivery systems, we would need to expend a lot of energy cooling wires. Condensed matter physicists have found "high temperature" superconductors, which are employed, for instance, in this car. Sadly, "high temperature" is still a relative term - we are still talking about of the order of −200 C. The goal would be room temperature. Physicists are continually finding new superconductors, and many believe that we may in the future be able to harness this bizarre facet of physics for practical every day problems.
-this car is not yet a practical thing (365 kW! For a car?! A wee bit excessive, no?) as the motor (or parts thereof) needs to be cooled to −200 C and it only gains 10% over a regular electric car motor with the same battery.
-nonetheless this is cool and might be pioneering future, more practical research
2. Building a miniature version of the earth's core to investigate the dynamo theory of the generation and sustaining of the earth's magnetic field and fluctuations therein.
30 second version:
-The earth has a magnetic field - you knew that- and it is largely dipolar (i.e. there is a north magnetic pole and a south magnetic pole and no one really has to worry about any higher order poles; compasses point to the north magnetic pole)
-A very important question is why?
-We also know that sometimes the poles reverse (north and south switch). This has happened many times over geological history and been recorded in seafloor sediments magnetic stripes, exactly like cassette tapes record music.
-We know that the earth has a solid inner iron core, with a fluid outer iron core. We know that changing electric fields (say, for instance, you take some electrons and move them all about) generate magnetic fields and vice versa. So it is possible to generate a somewhat hand-wavy* model in which a spinning core could generate a self-sustaining magnetic field (in case you care: the moving electric field come from Coriolis forces on the molten metal).
-the other important aspect of dynamo theory, is that such dynamos exhibit chaos** and flip polarity (just like the earth's magnetic field)
-Another really important questions is what would happen to those of us who live on earth if the planet's magnetic field flipped today?! [Answer: I don't want to be here when that happens.] When might this happen? [Answer: We don't know, but geological time >> human life times, so it's not really worth worrying about.]
The interesting thing to me is that I can connect the physics, since electric motors use dynamos. Also, this has a U of T connection; the earth's magnetic field was first systematically measured by Gauss. His observatory here is now the UTSU building (hence the domed roof, known more for its unpredictably changing colour than its history). The University in their "wisdom" turned Gauss down for tenure. I probably should not advertise that fact.
*hand-wavy is physicist-speak for "do not look behind the curtain"
**colloquially known as the 'butterfly effect', which means simply that the system will change in a manner that is deterministic but, for practical reasons, not predictable (as we will never have enough data)
-superconductors have no electrical resistance! (hence, inherently cool... bad pun for reynardin ... all since jokes are inherently corny - it's a law of the universe). The problem is that most of the unusual metals involved must be cooled to near absolute zero (−273.15 C or 0 K) which means that to get the possibly fantastic energy savings using superconductors in all circuits and energy delivery systems, we would need to expend a lot of energy cooling wires. Condensed matter physicists have found "high temperature" superconductors, which are employed, for instance, in this car. Sadly, "high temperature" is still a relative term - we are still talking about of the order of −200 C. The goal would be room temperature. Physicists are continually finding new superconductors, and many believe that we may in the future be able to harness this bizarre facet of physics for practical every day problems.
-this car is not yet a practical thing (365 kW! For a car?! A wee bit excessive, no?) as the motor (or parts thereof) needs to be cooled to −200 C and it only gains 10% over a regular electric car motor with the same battery.
-nonetheless this is cool and might be pioneering future, more practical research
2. Building a miniature version of the earth's core to investigate the dynamo theory of the generation and sustaining of the earth's magnetic field and fluctuations therein.
30 second version:
-The earth has a magnetic field - you knew that- and it is largely dipolar (i.e. there is a north magnetic pole and a south magnetic pole and no one really has to worry about any higher order poles; compasses point to the north magnetic pole)
-A very important question is why?
-We also know that sometimes the poles reverse (north and south switch). This has happened many times over geological history and been recorded in seafloor sediments magnetic stripes, exactly like cassette tapes record music.
-We know that the earth has a solid inner iron core, with a fluid outer iron core. We know that changing electric fields (say, for instance, you take some electrons and move them all about) generate magnetic fields and vice versa. So it is possible to generate a somewhat hand-wavy* model in which a spinning core could generate a self-sustaining magnetic field (in case you care: the moving electric field come from Coriolis forces on the molten metal).
-the other important aspect of dynamo theory, is that such dynamos exhibit chaos** and flip polarity (just like the earth's magnetic field)
-Another really important questions is what would happen to those of us who live on earth if the planet's magnetic field flipped today?! [Answer: I don't want to be here when that happens.] When might this happen? [Answer: We don't know, but geological time >> human life times, so it's not really worth worrying about.]
The interesting thing to me is that I can connect the physics, since electric motors use dynamos. Also, this has a U of T connection; the earth's magnetic field was first systematically measured by Gauss. His observatory here is now the UTSU building (hence the domed roof, known more for its unpredictably changing colour than its history). The University in their "wisdom" turned Gauss down for tenure. I probably should not advertise that fact.
*hand-wavy is physicist-speak for "do not look behind the curtain"
**colloquially known as the 'butterfly effect', which means simply that the system will change in a manner that is deterministic but, for practical reasons, not predictable (as we will never have enough data)