Doctype MOSEM ProjectLLP-LdV-TOI-2007-NO/165.009Page 1 of 4 Printed 2023-05-10

PARTNER: AMSTEL Institute, Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL)

AUTHOR: Peter Uylings DATE: 2010-02-02

REVIEWER: Reviewer name DATE: yyyy-mm-dd

Superconductivity at Bonhoeffercollege, Castricum VERSION: 1

High Tech Kit Experiments at secondary school

Bonhoeffercollege, Castricum, Netherlands is a secondary school of about 1450 pupils for higher pre-vocational and pre-university study. The school has a highly exact profile, being one of national vanguard science schools. Bonhoeffercollege is partner of the SuperComet 2 and Mosem2 projects, both part of the SUPERCOMET Project Family.

Two groups of pupils of the age of 17 have tested a large number of experiments of the High Tech Kit developed in the course of the Mosem project. The High Tech Kit experiments focus on various exciting aspects of superconductivity and are especially designed to illustrate these phenomena at a senior high school or junior university level. It may easily have been the first time ever in the world that students of this age independently work with superconduction at a quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative demonstration level. It not only proved that these experiments can be performed at school without the need of a sophisticated but highly inaccessible university laboratory environment, but also without the supervision of a university expert: at the two experimental afternoon sessions, only the students and the school technical assistant were present.

Preparation: instructed technical assistant and liquid hydrogenTuesday December 1 2009, Wim Peeters (Ponton, Belgium) and a university technical assistant (DPB Antwerpen) brought a MOSEM High Tech Kit to Castricum, meeting the school technical assistant Arie Moor. Together, they went through the experiments using the MO2_PM05_Ostrava_videofile_timecode.wmv as a guide. The High Tech Kit was left behind in Castricum, and two afternoons for the two groups of pupils were scheduled in January. A small delay was involved as one of the contacts in the temperature sensor had to be repaired. A neighboring technical firm supplied the required liquid hydrogen, to be collected in the Dewar from the High Tech Kit. This proved to be enough preparation and now everything is ready to go.

MOSEM ContractorSimplicatus ASP.O. Box 27NO-2006 Løvenstad

Vegard Engstrøm

Phone +47 9118 8774Fax +47 6300 2933

MOSEM CoordinatorUniversity of TorunGrudziadzka 5PL-87-100 Torun

Grzegorz Karwasz

Phone +48 566 112 407Fax +48 566 225 397

Email

Web

project@mosem.no

www.mosem.euwww.supercomet.eu

Doctype MOSEM ProjectLLP-LdV-TOI-2007-NO/165.009Page 2 of 4 Printed 2023-05-10

Resistance versus temperature measurementsWith the sensors and the supplied software from the Kit, Resistance versus temperature measurements were performed both with a traditional conductor (copper) and a cuprate superconductor. As shown in the below pictures, measurements were taken both cooling and heating the sample, demonstrating a kind of hysteresis which has probably to do with the temperature adjustment velocity of the sensor.

MOSEM ContractorSimplicatus ASP.O. Box 27NO-2006 Løvenstad

Vegard Engstrøm

Phone +47 9118 8774Fax +47 6300 2933

MOSEM CoordinatorUniversity of TorunGrudziadzka 5PL-87-100 Torun

Grzegorz Karwasz

Phone +48 566 112 407Fax +48 566 225 397

Email

Web

project@mosem.no

www.mosem.euwww.supercomet.eu

Doctype MOSEM ProjectLLP-LdV-TOI-2007-NO/165.009Page 3 of 4 Printed 2023-05-10

Levitation

In the levitation experiments, height, pinning and rotation and their inertial properties were investigated, see picture:

Eternal current and magnetic fieldWhen a ring superconductor is suddenly detached from a magnetic field, the induced current will persist in the superconductor “forever”, i.e. as long as the ring remains cooled below its critical temperature. This spectacular phenomenon was demonstrated with a Hall sensor as well.

Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) trainAs a particular icing of the cake, students were able to see a (polystyrene foam) train moving while hovering above a rails composed of three parallel strips (with alternating magnetic poles) of strong neodymium magnets. In the picture, the nose of the train is 90 degrees off. The students discovered themselves that the positioning of the train magnets determines the direction of the train and corrected it. Next, they had the levitating train moving above the rails at quite an impressive speed and video taped it! To them, and to all of their peer students and their parents they showed and explained their video to the next evening, this was an exciting and motivating experience. Many people even without any science background seem to be intrigued by this macroscopic quantum phenomenon that works such counterintuitive magic.

MOSEM ContractorSimplicatus ASP.O. Box 27NO-2006 Løvenstad

Vegard Engstrøm

Phone +47 9118 8774Fax +47 6300 2933

MOSEM CoordinatorUniversity of TorunGrudziadzka 5PL-87-100 Torun

Grzegorz Karwasz

Phone +48 566 112 407Fax +48 566 225 397

Email

Web

project@mosem.no

www.mosem.euwww.supercomet.eu

Doctype MOSEM ProjectLLP-LdV-TOI-2007-NO/165.009Page 4 of 4 Printed 2023-05-10

Theoretical explanationsIt would be worthwhile to provide a short elementary theoretical explanation for each of the individual experiments along with the Kit. This will avoid the High Tech Kit becoming just a magical box: nice and fascinating phenomena without understanding or theoretical background.

MOSEM ContractorSimplicatus ASP.O. Box 27NO-2006 Løvenstad

Vegard Engstrøm

Phone +47 9118 8774Fax +47 6300 2933

MOSEM CoordinatorUniversity of TorunGrudziadzka 5PL-87-100 Torun

Grzegorz Karwasz

Phone +48 566 112 407Fax +48 566 225 397

Email

Web

project@mosem.no

www.mosem.euwww.supercomet.eu