Viggen Posted August 7, 2003 Report Share Posted August 7, 2003 Researchers from Israel have developed a new way to date archaeological objects that is based on superconductivity. The new technique relies on measuring the magnetic signal from lead - which was widely used in antiquity - in samples that have been cooled to cryogenic temperatures. The method could be used to date pipes, coins, bottles and other objects. Lead is stable in many environments and corrodes only very slowly into lead oxide and lead carbonate. It becomes a superconductor when cooled below 7.2 Kelvin, whereas the corrosion products do not. This means that the magnetization of the lead will be several orders of magnitude higher than that of the corrosion products when the sample is placed in an applied magnetic field at temperatures below 7.2 Kelvin. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the magnetic signal from the sample is coming from the lead only. more on Physicsweb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb_control Posted August 7, 2003 Report Share Posted August 7, 2003 To bad its just for lead, because manythings don't have lead. I suppose that they could date for example a house or boat if a nail or something with lead was directly related to it (example a nail in the hull of a boat). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted August 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2003 On a positive note, it is the first time that they can do that, so many objects are about to be dated that havent been before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb_control Posted August 8, 2003 Report Share Posted August 8, 2003 Why? They couldn't use that other method carbondating or whatever its called? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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