On April 8, 1911, superconductivity was discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. A quiz on superconductors

QUESTION 1

A superconductor is a material whose properties are such that the material can conduct electricity without resistance. Superconductors also demonstrate one other common trait: they expel ________ ______. Fill in the blanks.

QUESTION 2

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was awarded the physics Nobel Prize two years after 1911 “for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures”. Name the process Onnes used to liquefy gases, a prerequisite for these discoveries.

QUESTION 3

In 1986, Georg Bednorz and Alex Muller found that lanthanum barium copper oxide became a superconductor at 35 K — a big jump from the 23 K record until then. In 1987, the American Physical Society invited the duo to present their findings at a meeting. This meeting has since been called the “X of physics” for the excitement it generated. What is X?

QUESTION 4

Scientists have found that when two sheets of graphene are stacked such that their bonds are parallel, and then one sheet is twisted by an angle of 1.1 degrees with respect to the other, the system acquires the properties of a superconductor. What is this angle called?

QUESTION 5

When a superconductor spins, it generates a magnetic field whose axis aligns perfectly with the spin axis. Name the NASA satellite launched in 2004 that used this effect to test two predictions of general relativity.

Questions and Answers to the April 5 edition of the daily quiz:

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