Re: Pedagogy of misconceptions.

[Larry Woolf <Larry.Woolf@GAT.COM>]

At 8:08 AM -0700 2/15/2002, Chuck Britton wrote:

> I could see this 'Long and winding road' to be useful in discussing
> conductivity.
> One important point to make is that MOST of the 'motion' is NOT
> directed along the wire. Most is random thermal shaking with slow,
> steady net progress along the path. Drunkards Walk was a popular
> analogy in the pre-PC days.
> Superconductivity cries out for a suitable 'analogy' of the
> transition from normal conductivity.


The earth has been peppered with tiny meteorites for millions of years and
now consists of many small depressions in the land. The Cooper brothers
live in normal land. They are drunk and wear special ice skates with rods
sticking out of them with a sticky substance on the end of the rod. Normal
land is also constantly rocked by small earthquakes.  Even if they end up
in the same depression, the force of the earthquakes never allows them to
fall towards each other, towards the deepest part of the depression.  As
they approach the boundary of superconductivity land, the earthquakes
subside. At the boundary of superconductivity land, which is a frozen
wasteland of ice, the earthquakes are no more and the drunken Cooper
brothers both end up in the same depression.  They slide towards each
other, their rods lock together, and off they skate, the Cooper pair
forever locked together, into the frozen wasteland of superconductivity
land.

Dr. Lawrence D. Woolf; General Atomics, 3550 General Atomics Court, Mail
Stop 15-242, San Diego, CA 92121