In what fields are superconductors most widely used?

In what fields are superconductors most widely used?

 

 

1________________ 2___________________________ 3__________________________

Work in pairs or small groups. Read the text and brainstorm some ideas for possible uses of superconductivity in the near future

Applications of superconductivity

What's so good about superconductivity? Yes, you can make little bits of ceramics float if you make them really cold, but what else can you do? Imagine if we could make a material that was superconducting at room temperature. Our computers would work faster because they'd allow electric currents to flow more easily. We could make powerful electromagnets that turned electricity into magnetism without wasting anything like as much energy. That would mean electric appliances in our homes and offices would waste much less power. We could also make "Maglev" (magnetic levitation) trains that would float on rails using linear motors and get us around with a fraction of the power used by current locomotives. Engineers are already trying to use superconductors in all these ways, but if they could find a really high-temperature superconductor (one that worked at about 0–20°C (32–68°F or 273–293K), their job would be an awful lot easier!

Called superconductivity this discovery remained without practical applications for decades.

But nowadays superconductors are already used in many fields: electricity, medical applications, electronics and even trains. They are used in laboratories, especially in particle accelerators, in astrophysics in ultrasensitive magnetic detectors called SQUIDs and in superconducting coils to produce very strong magnetic fields.

However, they need to be cooled to very low temperatures, and this fact restricts their use in our everyday life. But new applications are already operational in laboratories and will be able to spread to our cities and our homes if the cooling process becomes less expensive or, better, if we discover superconducting materials that do not require any cooling. If this happens, we can expect an actual revolution in energies and environment on the one side and transportation and computer science on the other.

 

Useful notes

passionate fan – страстный поклонник

friction - трение

evaporate - испарять(ся)

humidity – влажность

shim - тонкая прокладка

conventional material – обычный материал

transition temperature – температура, при которой материал становится сверхпроводящим

magnetic flux – магнитный поток, магнитные силовые линии

maintain – поддерживать, сохранять

cease – прекращать, переставать

 

1 Does the train use any motor?

2 The train really steams. What evaporates inside the model steam engine?

3 What is the core of this magnetic levitation train?

4 What is the rail made of?

5 What determines the distance between the rail and train?

6 What happens with the superconducting material when the liquid nitrogen is evaporated?

7 Can the distance between the rail and locomotive be varied?

8 What is this impressive experiment designed for?

 

59. Watch the video again* and choose the correct alternative

 

1 The superconductor is brought into a certain distance of a few millimeters above the magnetic rail and is cooled down in this position using liquid nitrogen/ using liquid helium

2 To get the superconducting train in motion one has to give it an initial impulse by hand. Due to the friction / the lack of friction the steam engine goes round and round until the liquid nitrogen is evaporated and the material warms up.

3 The train really steams but it’s not water evaporates inside the model steam engine but liquid nitrogen so cold that humidity condenses on it /that the temperature drops to zero.

4 Reaching the specific transition temperature the superconductor traps the magnetic flux of the outer field. Now we can remove the shim of a certain thickness which determines the distance/

which protects the material from the magnetic flux.

5 The superconductor is fixed at this distance and can only move along the magnetic rail even when turning upside down but the effect lasts only aslongas the superconducting state in thematerial appears/ the superconducting state in the material is maintained.

6 Above the so called transition temperature superconductors are no longer affected by magneticfields and a locomotive goes round and round / drops back to the rail due to the effects of gravity.

7Then it’s time to refill the liquid in order to recool the superconductor below zero / its transition temperature.

8 The train looks like a toy for playful physicists but it could soon become reality for technicians/it is designed to test superconducting materials.

* If necessary

 

Russian English

О нем часто говорят. He is much spoken about.

Над ним часто смеются. He is often laughed at.

 

 

REVIEW 1-4

1 Complete the sentences, using the I wish… structure

Essential vocabulary

 

assume v density n resistance n

below adv finally adv resistivity n

benefit n insulator n satisfactory a

boil v introduce v suddenly adv

cool v lack v sufficiently adv

continue v likely adv superconductor n

current n lose v superconductivity n

discover v pass v wire n

 

Exercise 4 on page 20

Student B:

1 One of the biggest successes in the recent past is the production of a flexible yttrium-barium-copper-oxide tape, created in April 1995

 

2 Electricity has become an essential energy source in our modern life. However, today’s power cables can carry only limited currents otherwise they would heat and melt. A network o f s uperconducting power cables would solve this problem because 1000 times more electric current can flow through them: smaller cables with more current

 

3 Superconductors can also be used to make a device known as s uperconducting q uantum i nterference d evice (SQUID). This is incredibly sensitive to small magnetic fields so that it can detect __________(What?). For comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field is about 10 -4 Tesla. As a result, SQUIDs are used in medical diagnostics on the brain.

 

4 A use of large and powerful superconducting electromagnets is in a possible future energy source known as nuclear fusion. ___________(What?) is currently being built in the south of France that will use large superconducting magnets and is due for completion in _______(When?) It is expected that this will demonstrate energy production using nuclear fusion.

 

In what fields are superconductors most widely used?

 

 

1________________ 2___________________________ 3__________________________