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At what temperature did mercury first become superconducting in Kamerlingh Onnesās experiment?
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superconductivity
Figure 1: Specific heat in the normal (Cen) and superconducting (Ces) states of a classic superconductor as a function of absolute temperature. The two functions are identical at the transition temperature (Tc) and above Tc.
In his 1911 experiment, the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that the electrical resistivity of a mercury wire disappears suddenly when it is cooled below a temperature of approximately 4 K (ā269 °C).1