L
Lincsbodger
OK, if you though the stuff about the speed of light was wierd, its nothing compared to what goes on at 1 degree Kelvin above absolute Zero (-247C)
If you cool Helium to just 4 degrees above absolute zero, its turns into a fun liquid, called superfluid helium. Its has wierd properties, like being able to flow uphill, having no friction or surface tension, and being able to flow through gaps literally hundreds of atoms wide. Take a beaker of superfluid helium start to pour it into another beaker, then stop and put the beaker down - the helium will continue to flow up the side of the beaker against gravity, over the lip and into the other beaker, tills its all gone.
However, there more.
In 2006 two japanese guys realised there should be another state - a supersolid, with even weirder properties. Several labs set about testing the theory, one found the result so bizarre they spent 4 years rechecking and rechecking the result because they thought they had made a mistake. But, they didnt, it exists, supersolid helium.
Take superfluid helium and cool it to just 1 degree above absolute zero, then compress it to 25 atmospheres. What you get looks like a block of ice. Inside, the helium atoms have made a crystal lattice, just like ice.
a bit like this:
except in supersolid helium, its so cold and brittle lots of the helium atoms break off, leaving big gaps, that oddly still hold the lattice together (i said it was weird), they have been dubbed 'ghost' atoms.
The result is that if you could take two bricks of the stuff, you could push them through each other - a solid that will pass through a solid. Like walking through the wall.
Incredible.............
If you cool Helium to just 4 degrees above absolute zero, its turns into a fun liquid, called superfluid helium. Its has wierd properties, like being able to flow uphill, having no friction or surface tension, and being able to flow through gaps literally hundreds of atoms wide. Take a beaker of superfluid helium start to pour it into another beaker, then stop and put the beaker down - the helium will continue to flow up the side of the beaker against gravity, over the lip and into the other beaker, tills its all gone.
However, there more.
In 2006 two japanese guys realised there should be another state - a supersolid, with even weirder properties. Several labs set about testing the theory, one found the result so bizarre they spent 4 years rechecking and rechecking the result because they thought they had made a mistake. But, they didnt, it exists, supersolid helium.
Take superfluid helium and cool it to just 1 degree above absolute zero, then compress it to 25 atmospheres. What you get looks like a block of ice. Inside, the helium atoms have made a crystal lattice, just like ice.
a bit like this:
except in supersolid helium, its so cold and brittle lots of the helium atoms break off, leaving big gaps, that oddly still hold the lattice together (i said it was weird), they have been dubbed 'ghost' atoms.
The result is that if you could take two bricks of the stuff, you could push them through each other - a solid that will pass through a solid. Like walking through the wall.
Incredible.............
