Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Quantum Physics in a Cup

There is a fluid that has the following properties:
  • If you draw up a cup of the fluid out of a basin, it will creep up the sides of the cup and "pour itself back" into the basin.

  • If you put it in a glass bottle and rotate the bottle continuously, the fluid will never spin around inside the bottle.

  • It is impossible to heat or cool one part of the fluid to a temperature different than any other part of the fluid.
These are the amazing quantum properties of "Superfluids", such as supercooled helium-4. These fluids have zero viscosity, zero entropy, and infinite thermal conductivity. Amazing!

Read more about it in the Wikipedia article.

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