Blog
Great Scientist : Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was awarded Nobel Prize for Super Conductivity in 1913
Great Scientist : Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was awarded Nobel Prize for Super Conductivity in 1913
Electricity means the flow of electrons. Electrons travel through almost all substances. But the flow is higher in some substances and lower in some substances. Reason for this is the atomic vibration in the substances. These vibrations stop the flow of electrons. The substances through which large number of electrons travel are called good conductors and others are called poor conductors. But if some substances are heated, the severity of vibrations of atoms decreases and the substance becomes good conductor. Such substances are called super conductors and that property is called Super Conductivity.
Super conductors offer effectively zero resistance to the flow of electricity when used in electric motors, generators and transformers. The making of electromagnetic became possible with super conductors. MRI scanners, micro processors in computers, magnetic trains work basing on this property. Super conductivity was discovered by Dutch scientist Kamerlingh Onnes and was awarded the Nobel Prize for the same.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born in Groningen, Netherlands on 21st September, 1853. He obtained his masters degree in physics by the age of 25 and a doctorate the next year. He joined as a professor in University of Leiden. He founded a very large Cryogenics laboratory in the university. He discovered 26 substances which can be converted to super conductors by decreasing the temperature. He is the first scientist to liquify helium, he lowered the temperature to less than one degree above absolute zero, reaching 0.9 k. This was the coldest temperature achieved on earth at that time. He determined that mercury becomes super conductor at 4 k temperature, tin at 3.7 k temperature and lead becomes super conductor at the temperature of 7.2 k. A crater on the moon was named after him.
