Superconductivity and the Chess Analogy
Superconductivity is the phenomenon wherein certain metals, when cooled to near absolute zero (-273˚C), are able to conduct electricity with no electrical resistance. In Tales from the Quantum , Art Hobson explains how it works: At normal temperatures, each electron in the metal creates an electromagnetic (EM) field. The carrier for this EM field is a photon, which being massless, extends to infinity; As electricity tries to move through the metal, it experiences this EM field, and that is what we call “resistance” in our daily lingo; Remember how ice and water (or water and steam) are so very different even though they are chemically identical? Such radical changes in properties is called “phase change”; At near absolute zero temperature, the electrons pair up, and the character of the paired electrons is “radically different from normal unpaired electrons”. A phase change has happened; This transformed field of the paired electrons “causes photons to behave in a surprisi...