Superfluidity, © Jeremy Stoller
Yeah so superfluids:
- zero viscosity (no “thickness” or resistance to pouring; a superfluid in a closed loop can flow endlessly)
- zero entropy (trying to wrap my head around how this makes sense)
- infinite thermal conductivity (temperature gradients are impossible, any closed system of superfluid exists simultaneously at the same temperature)
The phase of matter was discovered by some pretty smart dudes, some number of years ago, which is all hardly the point. What caught my eye and catalyzed this post was this excerpt from Wikipedia:
A more fundamental property than the disappearance of viscosity becomes visible if superfluid is placed in a rotating container. Instead of rotating uniformly with the container, the rotating state consists of quantized vortices. That is, when the container is rotated at speed below the first critical velocity (related to the quantum numbers for the element in question) the liquid remains perfectly stationary. Once the first critical velocity is reached, the superfluid instantaneously starts spinning at the critical speed. The speed is quantized - i.e. it can only spin at certain speeds.
LINK/IMAGE ["Superfluidity and Quantized Vortices"]
LINK/IMAGES [visualizations: quantized vortex dynamics]
ARTICLE [superfluid]
The only thing with the information I’ve found online that lights up my skeptical lobe is all the talk of absolutes like “zero” and “infinite” and “instantaneously”. I don’t have a problem with the concept of absolutes, just their physical manifestation. You can always nudge a little closer to a perfect, infinite, instantaneous ideal. I can imagine a substance having functionally zero viscosity, or seemingly infinite thermal conductivity, at least as far as we can measure and conceive; but claiming anything further just doesn’t resonate. Maybe I don’t understand the intricacies of supercooled and superheated states of matter. Maybe I can’t read the Bible in the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. But it seems that clinging to intangible absolutes has never gotten us very far with anything. Whatever, I’m probably and usually wrong.
Either way the mechanics of this are beautiful to imagine: tiny vortices (1,000 in a 1 cm test tube spinning once a minute) like gears in a watch rotating independently of their surroundings until at one moment, they can finally come to terms, “we’re all in this together” they probably say, and sync up in one collective, harmonized motion.
See also: supersolid, superconductivity, superdiamagnetism and quantum vortex.
Previously: Whitney Music Box Variations
The Conversation {11 comments}
That is fascinating! (The pictures! The rest begins to overwhelm my brain, but still!) I agree with you on the absolutes and the infinities, though. It’s like saying “always” and “never.” Things change. You learn more. Things are rarely “always” and “never” or “absolutely” right, or so I find. Everything’s in the grey to me!
Speaking of super fluids…
You ever seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2XQ97XHjVw
Are you kidding I bathe in that every day. And sleep on it.
And Lelia, speaking of seeing grey, I’d like to get my hands on some of this:
That is fascinating! Seems like it could have a lot of practical applications!
I wonder, though, is it what it’s made out of that makes it so much darker, or is it the tiny craters of the surface? If the latter, it’d be good to apply that style to a lot of things in our every day lives, especially on the road, where reflecting light can be quite a danger, depending on where you live.
More here, including a photograph of the material, as if it matters. But it’s the surface etching that traps the light:
So a substrate = sponge ? A very efficient substrate at that.
When I first read your description while viewing the illustration above I couldn’t help but think about the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster dropping into the orb.
What would happen if the vortices were not just linear and there were two of them circling around the orb (superfluid) above? Where would it go? Would the orb be contained and smush into a superfluid? One would have to smush the matter (supersolid) also.
In the movie humans on earth could only record the time. The sole measurment of time they recorded was 18 hours of static while Jodie was away, smushed inside her orb (world). Her reality shifted. Superhuman.
This brings into question entropy Justin like you said; specifically Entropy and Cosmology
So is a superliquid a black hole? Star Trec “Beam me up Scottie.” All we need to do now is learn how to send it somewhere and take form elsewhere. “What the Bleep?”
;)
That doesn’t make any sense to me (but then, neither does anything else). Either way I like your style.
Thanks =) I learn through visual recognition. Rather than recognizing “words” then undertsanding their meaning I tend to associate meaning with visuals I see in my head. I commented on this post first, only after that becoming interested in the Inner Life of a Cell video you posted earlier.
I had been writing out and drawing out some ideas in my sketchbook, took a break and went online. Came here and lo and behold things made sense to me after reading what you posted and reading the link trail.
Creatively I’m intrigued. I only passed Chemistry in high school because I could draw it out. Thanks for the creative science inspiration Justin and the words (language) associated with those theories.
That’s fascinating. OK so I am a nerd. I liked the bit about how it won’t spin with a container until it goes a certain speed then all of a sudden. Sounds like some divide by zero type things, which blows my mind. :) Yet it sorta makes sense.
I wonder if this can be useful in something or other.
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