4
votes
Accepted
What was the historical importance of the discovery of high-$T_c$ superconductors?
This is what I recall... (I was a high school kid at the time)
There are two aspects. First the new ceramic high Tc superconductors could be cooled with liquid nitrogen - this is much cheaper and ...
- 2,048
2
votes
Why is the thermoelectric figure of merit denoted by $ZT$?
My guess for the Z
From THIS Germain-English dictionary, we see that "Figure of merit" in German could be
Gütezahl $\qquad$ or $\qquad$ Leistungskennzahl
in electrical engineering. So probably ...
- 8,625
2
votes
Why is the thermoelectric figure of merit denoted by $ZT$?
The concept of the thermoelectric figure of merit and the abbreviation ZT were introduced by the Russian physicist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe in 1949, so I assume the acronym originates from Russian. ...
- 289
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