Radar
July 3rd, 2007, 12:49 AM
All this cold weather is making me think of the coldest thing known to man.
It's called an Bose-Einstein Condensate.
A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter formed by a system of bosons confined in an external potential and cooled to temperatures very near to absolute zero (0 kelvin or -273.15 °C). Under such supercooled conditions, a large fraction of the atoms collapse into the lowest quantum state of the external potential, at which point quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale.
This state of matter was first predicted as a consequence of quantum mechanics by Albert Einstein, building upon the work of Satyendra Nath Bose in 1925, hence the name. Seventy years later, the first such condensate was produced by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman in 1995 at the University of Colorado at Boulder NIST-JILA lab, using a gas of rubidium atoms cooled to 170 nanokelvin (nK). Cornell, Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle at MIT were awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm, Sweden.
What impresses me about this is that Einstein predicted how atoms would behave under such circumstances and ended being spot on.
Under the right conditions matter can defy gravity -
Condensates are extremely low-temperature fluids with properties that are currently not completely understood, such as spontaneously flowing out of their container. The effect is the consequence of quantum mechanics, which states that systems can only acquire energy in discrete steps. If a system is at such a low temperature that it is in the lowest energy state, it is no longer possible for it to reduce its energy, not even by friction. Without friction, the fluid will easily overcome gravity because of adhesion between the fluid and the container wall, and it will take up the most favorable position, all around the container
This technology will no doubt be used for something useful in the coming years. Anti Gravity, some form of propulsion or even a super cooling stubby holder (a beer can holder for non Aussies).
Ray
It's called an Bose-Einstein Condensate.
A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter formed by a system of bosons confined in an external potential and cooled to temperatures very near to absolute zero (0 kelvin or -273.15 °C). Under such supercooled conditions, a large fraction of the atoms collapse into the lowest quantum state of the external potential, at which point quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale.
This state of matter was first predicted as a consequence of quantum mechanics by Albert Einstein, building upon the work of Satyendra Nath Bose in 1925, hence the name. Seventy years later, the first such condensate was produced by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman in 1995 at the University of Colorado at Boulder NIST-JILA lab, using a gas of rubidium atoms cooled to 170 nanokelvin (nK). Cornell, Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle at MIT were awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm, Sweden.
What impresses me about this is that Einstein predicted how atoms would behave under such circumstances and ended being spot on.
Under the right conditions matter can defy gravity -
Condensates are extremely low-temperature fluids with properties that are currently not completely understood, such as spontaneously flowing out of their container. The effect is the consequence of quantum mechanics, which states that systems can only acquire energy in discrete steps. If a system is at such a low temperature that it is in the lowest energy state, it is no longer possible for it to reduce its energy, not even by friction. Without friction, the fluid will easily overcome gravity because of adhesion between the fluid and the container wall, and it will take up the most favorable position, all around the container
This technology will no doubt be used for something useful in the coming years. Anti Gravity, some form of propulsion or even a super cooling stubby holder (a beer can holder for non Aussies).
Ray