Posted
on July 8, 2015
On
this date in 1894, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was born in Russia. He
grew up to become a physicist, and in 1937, he discovered that helium
becomes a superfluid in low temperatures.
Kapitsa
ended up winning a Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery.
The
next year on this date, 1895, Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm was born in
Russia. He discovered, along with a man named Cherenkov, that there
is a faint blue glow emitted when a charged particle passes through a
liquid (or other material) faster than light travels through that
liquid (or other material).
Tamm
ended up winning a Nobel Prize in physics for his work, too.
Nice
coincidence, eh?
 |
| Superfluid helium seems to defy gravity. It climbs up the walls of its container and then drips down and out of the container. It can even create a fountain like this: |
 |
| As the fast-moving particle travels through a fluid, it leaves behind an expanding "cone" of disturbance in the fluid's electromagnetic field. Of course, a disturbance in an electromagnetic field is light. |
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