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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 787
L
Member
Originally Posted by SteveFehr
The difficulty lies in voltage conversion; it would still be economical to use high voltages for long distances to decrease cable size.


If the resistance is so low, why bother to increase the voltage for long distance transmission? I am under the impression that the only reason for the increased voltage was to reduce the current to a suitable level to use smaller conductors.

Larry C

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 337
S
Member
Good question Larry. If you read back in the postings you will find that there is a saturation current level. If I remember my Thermal Physics (a difficult class for me), it is simply due to the limited number of electrons that are available in the material and that they are limited by the speed of light, speed limit. Therefore increasing the voltage allows more power to flow as you can not increase the amperage any further.

On another line: It'll be just my luck when they finally do develop room temperature super conductors that global warming will make us all have to adjust room temperature up to where we'll still need the cooling on the conductors. Either that or all my runs will be required in attic space.

Lastly, when somethings get really cold some interesting properties can come out. I don't remember the material, but when cooled to 2 degrees Kelvin (possibly helium in a liquid state), it becomes a super liquid. It shows no resistance to flow. Dropping a feather in it(assuming that you don't heat the liquid up), the feather will fall through the liquid just as if in a vacuum. The problem with this stuff, is you can't keep it in the container, it just flows out.

Last edited by sabrown; 07/22/08 10:16 AM.
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 482
Z
Zapped Offline OP
Member
It's nice to see everybody whipping out their physics! Impressive!

This technology, in application anyway, is in it's infant stage, and it's great to see all the theory and experimentation come to fruition in our lifetimes.

I think it will be pretty cool to look back on this conversation and consider this technology outdated when we have seen where it will actually go. I foresee applications and materials not yet conceived becoming commonplace and making us all seem like dinosaurs. It's a great era in which to be alive me thinks...

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