• Question: What do you think of superconductors and do you think they could ever be used to create a floating city?

    Asked by Matthew W to Aaron, David, Elaine, Sarah, Zoe on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Zoe Roberts

      Zoe Roberts answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      I think superconductors are a great invention. I would like to go on the high speed train someday! A floating city would be a little isolating but has that not already been done by Star Trek or something similar?

    • Photo: David Foley

      David Foley answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      Oh Zoe, it was the floating mining station on Bespin in Star Wars! Incidentally, all the cities of Alderaan were also floating, although since that planet was destroyed by the Death Star we’ll never know for sure.

      I use superconductors every day in my work – they are the central part of the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) machine that we use to prove we have made the right compounds. They are supercooled magnets of almost zero resistance that allow for high magnetic fields to be generated for our experiments.

      This requirement for super-cooling (liquid helium at -263 degrees) is the key limitation to most superconductor materials and will prevent floating cities for the forseeable future.

    • Photo: Sarah Ashwood

      Sarah Ashwood answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      I think superconductors are really amazing. It’s so interesting to see how they work. And maybe the idea could one day be used to create a floating city – that would be pretty spectacular.
      However like the others say, I think the idea of a floating city is a really long way off in terms of this technology! The main limitation of it is the necessity for super-cooling which is really expensive to do on large scale for long periods of time.
      We need to develop new materials that show the same properties but at temperatures nearer to room temperature before we can even start thinking about floating cities!

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