Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 201 149 Unexpected Floating

"Mr. Wells, Professor Huxley, since you have found the Royal Institute today, don't just stay in this small reception room, why not come with me to the upstairs laboratory Let's see what this so-called superconductivity is."

Chen Muwu kindly invited two people to the laboratory to observe the superconducting experiment, hoping that they could help him to be a witness.

"Doctor Chen, is this appropriate?"

Huxley raised his own doubts.

He is a professor of zoology at King's College, University of London. In his impression, laboratories, which are important places for scientific research, should be kept away from idlers.

When outsiders enter the laboratory at will, it is easy to trigger various strange and unstable factors, thereby affecting the results of the experiment.

"Professor Huxley, of course there is no problem. I know what you are worried about, but in fact, there is only one small refrigeration machine in that laboratory, and all our experiments are carried out in that machine. Outside influences are minimal.

"I have only one request for you two, and that is to leave the cigarettes, matches, and other things that may ignite items that you carry on your body here. Our laboratory prohibits all sources of fire from entering."

Wells and Huxley followed Chen Muwu's request and left all the fire sources on their bodies in the reception room, and followed the latter up the stairs to the upstairs laboratory.

"These two are my assistants," Chen Muwu, the host, introduced each other to the four people in the room, "This is Mr. Wells, the famous British writer who wrote "Time Machine", and this is Mr. Wells from King's College, University of London. Professor Huxley, whose grandfather was Sir Huxley who wrote Evolution."

When introducing the two guests, Chen Muwu had different emphases for different students.

For Oppenheimer, who likes poetry and literature, Wells should be more attractive to him.

As for his Chinese compatriot Shi Ruwei, the name of Huxley who wrote "Evolution of Heaven" is well known among intellectuals.

"I'll show two guests a tour of the laboratory, and I'll have a half-day off this afternoon. The two of you can have free time."

In fact, what Chen Muwu said next had nothing behind his back, it was just to brag with Wells, but he still invited these two students out, lest the speaker had no intention of listening to others.

"Take a look, both of you." After Shi Ruwei and Oppenheimer left, Chen Muwu held up a piece of off-white metal and demonstrated it to the two people present.

Niobium metal is extremely stable, it will not react with air under normal circumstances, and it is non-toxic and harmless, so he dared to touch it directly with his hands.

"That's the niobium metal that's been all over the papers lately."

"Dr. Chen," Wells interrupted him, "what is the relationship between the name of this metal, niobium, and the goddess of tears in Greek mythology, Niobe?"

"You are right, Mr. Wells, the name Niobium comes from this character in Greek mythology.

"Before the discovery of this metal, people first discovered a metal tantalum, whose name comes from Tantalus, the son of Zeus in Greek mythology.

"And niobium was isolated and discovered in tantalum ore, so it was named after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in mythology.

"But in fact, the element niobium was first predicted by the Americans.

"A long time ago, an American believed that a certain kind of mine contained a new element, and named it after Columbus who discovered the American continent, and called this new element columbium.

"It's just that he failed to give strong evidence to prove that this is a new element, so his discovery was not convincing.

"Later, European scientists successively discovered two elements, tantalum and niobium, and named them after two characters in Greek mythology.

"In the whole world, only the Americans still stubbornly call this element columbium. Apart from them, scientists in other countries call it niobium."

In fact, in the current Republic of China, there are also many chemists and mineralogists who call this element columbium according to the American name, and created a Chinese character for it, columbium.

This is mainly because of the boxer indemnity, most people went to study in the United States, and naturally received American education, and it is not surprising that they continued to use American academic vocabulary.

"First, when no conclusive evidence was found, he announced the existence of new metals in advance. After being discovered by others, he still insisted on his previous name and stubbornly refused to change it to meet the international standards. Things that can only be done by impetuous and arrogant Americans."

Huxley on the side made precise complaints, and Wells also smiled after hearing it.

During the First World War, the French man played blood, and those favorite jokes about breastfeeding hadn't been born in this world at this time.

The British have long disliked the upstart cousin on the other side of the Atlantic, so they are merciless when they make fun of him, without any psychological burden.

But not only the Americans, but the British have eyes on the top of their heads and look down on everyone. After all, they are still bathed in the afterglow of the sun.

After the three of them laughed, Wells continued to ask the question he had asked in a certain salon before: "Dr. Chen, this must be the refrigeration machine you mentioned, and the experiment about superconductivity is here Was it done in an instrument?"

"exactly."

"But I look at this machine, the wires connected to the back are not thin. When it is running, the power must not be low, right?

"Then even if you say that this kind of niobium metal will have zero resistance at low temperature, and there will be no loss in the transmission of electric energy, but isn't the energy consumed by this refrigeration much larger than the loss?"

Just now in the reception room on the first floor, when Huxley relayed the reason why they came to the Royal Research Institute, Chen Muwu heard Wells' question.

He found the problem at a glance. With this terrifying scientific sensitivity, Wells deserves to be a generation of science fiction masters.

That's why he invited two people to the laboratory, planning to make a plan.

"Mr. Wells, you can't say that. Although in the laboratory now, it is indeed like what you said, the electricity consumed by refrigeration is more than the electricity saved by using superconducting properties. But if in the future Can we find materials with a higher temperature? If a certain material can achieve superconductivity in the range of minus [-] degrees Celsius, then we can transmit power without loss in the Arctic Circle.

"And if the superconducting critical temperature of a certain material reaches zero degrees, we can even transmit in winter.

"When it reaches the room temperature of [-] to [-] degrees Celsius, then human beings will not have any loss in power transmission in the future."

Hey, why does this sound so familiar?It seems that Raman from the University of Calcutta said the same thing.

"And Mr. Wells, after this material enters superconductivity, the effect of zero resistance is not only that there is no loss in the process of power transmission, but it can also float in the center of the magnetic field, just like this."

Chen Muwu did not give too many theoretical explanations, but held up the piece of niobium, and held a magnet in the other hand, placed it under the clay piece, and started the simulation.

"Why don't I demonstrate it to the two of you now, but before that, I need to turn on the machine first, lower the temperature below the critical temperature, and let the metal niobium enter the superconducting state."

After Chen Muwu finished speaking, he "naturally" stacked the niobium sheet in his hand on top of the magnet, then put the two together into the refrigerator, and after taking various heat insulation measures, started the machine. machine.

"You two, the cooling process of the machine will take some time, please come here and take a rest." Chen Muwu invited the two to another corner of the laboratory, and prepared the previous liquid nitrogen quick-frozen bananas and pineapples in the same way. Afternoon tea time, it’s just that the laboratory doesn’t have the conditions to make tea, so I can only invite you to taste the summer cooling ice products I recently developed with local materials.”

"Dr. Chen, you will still enjoy it." The gourmet Huxley commented with satisfaction after eating a banana, "It's just a pity that you don't have any cold beer here. It's a good idea to have such a glass in the hot summer." It's a real treat."

Wells still insisted on the question just now: "Dr. Chen, even if what you said, this superconducting material will float in the magnetic field, what's the use of that?"

"It can be used to make trains, cars, and vehicles! If superconducting technology can be realized, future vehicles will be suspended on the ground, without the friction caused by contact with the ground. When moving forward, only It will be affected by air resistance, so the traffic speed will become faster after that."

"You mean like airplanes and airships?"

"Yes, and no, although these transportation materials are only affected by air resistance, what makes them float is very different.

"Aeroplanes rely on aerodynamic lift, airships rely on gas-filled buoyancy, and future superconducting suspension relies on the magnetic properties of superconductors.

"And compared with airplanes and airships, this kind of transportation is lower from the ground, so those daunting aerial disasters will not happen."

"Dr. Chen, if it's really like what you said, then I really want to take a look in the future. When will you study the time machine? After you succeed, I will be the first to apply to take it to travel in the future."

Wells made a joke. After all, Chen Muwu in front of him is the No. 1 one who theoretically proposed that time travel is feasible.

"The future may not be better than the present, Mr. Wells, maybe you will feel even more disappointed when you arrive in the future!"

"Dr. Chen, anyway, it will take some time for your machine to refrigerate. Can you please imagine from the perspective of a physicist, with the development of science, what the future you imagine will look like?"

Chen Muwu was worrying about how to delay the time, so that after the cooling temperature of the machine reached below 10 Kelvin, the niobium in the superconducting state would suddenly float in the magnetic field, so Wells brought him a topic.

What will the future look like?
Wells, which future are you asking?

Is it the future where the British overseas colonies are basically all independent or returned, and even Scotland, which has been merged for hundreds of years, has begun to fight for independence, the mighty Great Britain has become Little Britain, and the Indians have ridden on the heads of their masters to become prime ministers?

Chen Muwu really felt that if Wells went back to the future in a time machine and saw all these things, the old gentleman might have his blood pressure explode, roll his eyes and be pissed to death.

Forget it, let's say something better.

But what?
Internet, robots, artificial intelligence, medical technology, genetically modified...

Chen Muwu thought for a while, and from a physicist's point of view, none of the above particles was suitable.

But in the topic just now, things like airplanes and airships were mentioned in the sky, so why not just talk about things in the sky?
"Mr. Wells, do you believe that people will fly into the universe in the future?

"Sir Newton had already proposed a cannon idea hundreds of years ago. A cannon was set up on the top of a high mountain. As long as the speed of the cannonball is fast enough, the cannonball will always fly forward without falling. to the ground.

"In his time, this kind of cannon could only exist in fantasy, but with the development of science, people found stronger and stronger materials and fuels with higher efficiency. The speed at which it keeps orbiting the Earth without falling.

"If the speed is faster, maybe the shell will break away from the earth's gravitational bondage and get farther and farther away from the earth!
"This is not a whim on my part. In ten years, a Russian named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky has calculated this velocity. As long as the velocity of the shell reaches five miles per second, then it will can circle the earth.

"And the velocity of the cannonball reaches seven miles per second, so it can escape from the gravitational bondage of the earth.

"If its speed is higher, maybe it will escape from the solar system, or even the entire galaxy, and go deeper into the universe to explore!"

"I've seen this Mr. Tsiolkovsky's paper before. His calculated value should be no problem. It's just that humans can really make objects reach such amazing speeds?"

"I think it's possible. There was an idea in Chinese martial arts. A person kicks his right instep with his left foot, and then pushes his left instep with his right foot. If the two feet leverage each other, the He rose from the spot.

"The idea, of course, is absurd and it won't change anything other than two red-hot insteps.

"But after putting it on the cannonball, it's different. If you can experience layers of acceleration, it should be easy to let the cannonball reach a speed of five miles per second...Damn it, this niobium metal piece, why is it on its own? Floating in the magnetic field!"

Chen Muwu performed the last exclamation very realistically.

(End of this chapter)