suprajohtavaksi

suprajohtavaksi is a Finnish term that translates to "superconductive" in English. It refers to the state of a material where its electrical resistance drops to precisely zero below a certain critical temperature. This phenomenon, known as superconductivity, was first discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911 while studying mercury at very low temperatures.

When a material becomes superconductive, it exhibits two primary characteristics. The first is zero electrical resistance, meaning that an electric current can flow through it indefinitely without any loss of energy as heat. This has profound implications for energy transmission and various technological applications. The second key property is the Meissner effect, where a superconductor expels magnetic fields from its interior. If a magnet is brought near a superconductor below its critical temperature, the superconductor will repel the magnet, causing it to levitate.

Materials can be classified as either Type I or Type II superconductors based on their behavior in magnetic fields. Type I superconductors completely expel magnetic fields below a certain critical magnetic field strength. Type II superconductors, on the other hand, can tolerate stronger magnetic fields, allowing magnetic flux to penetrate them in quantized units, forming vortices.

The discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986, materials that exhibit superconductivity at significantly higher temperatures (though still very cold by everyday standards), has fueled research and development in this field, opening up possibilities for a wide range of practical applications.