this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
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Some great answers, but none of them ELI5, so I'll have a go.
When electricity passes through a non-metal, it's like trying to push a person through a wall, the person just bounces off. When electricity passes through a metal, it's like you put lots and lots of doors in the wall, so the people (electricity) can pass through it easily. Different metals have different conductivity (more or less doors).
Superconductivity is like taking the wall away completely, 100% of the people can freely pass the threshold. But, so far, we've only been able to make superconductors that work at very, very, very low temperatures; or very, very, very high pressures. Of course, it's not viable for our computer or electric cables to be cooled that much, or pressured that much.
In our modern world, with so many devices running on electricity, we lose lots and lots of energy & money to resistance (those pesky walls with not enough doors). If we had a superconductive material that works at room temperature, and normal pressure, it would mean we can send electricity around the world with very small amounts lost to resistance; it would mean our devices would become incredibly efficient; and likely lead to the development of incredible new technology.
I'd like to add to your excellent ELI5 explanation that removing the walls also means that super conductors don't generate heat. Normally those people would bounce off the walls and all that bouncing makes the room warmer. They're also wasted energy - you pump those people into the system, but all they do is make things warmer with their stupid bouncing. Since lots of electrical components will melt if the temperature gets too high, this also means you have to either waste power on cooling equipment to keep things cool, or limit how much power you pump into the system to ensure the rooms don't get too hot.
This heat generation is putting some hard caps on current hardware designs and speeds especially for computer components.
But if you could build computer components with superconducting circuitry, it would firstly use a lot less power, and secondly you could make it go much faster without risking cooking the components. So for personal devices and PCs, this would have huge potential.
Stupid bouncing people! Thanks for expanding on my comment. I hope they explain this potential discovery for those who don't understand it.