Below 2.17 Kelvin, liquid helium-4 enters a zero-viscosity quantum phase and forms a microscopic Rollin film that creeps upward over beaker walls.
When cooled past its Lambda point, helium-4 atoms lock into a coherent quantum state with zero internal friction. Driven by surface attraction, a microscopic film climbs vertical glass walls and drips off the bottom.
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Quick Guess: Near roughly how many Kelvin does liquid helium-4 transition into a zero-viscosity superfluid?
Verified Answer: 2 K
Quiz Question: Why can superfluid helium-4 below 2.17 K creep up and over glass container walls?
Correct Answer: It loses all viscosity and flows frictionlessly as a quantum Rollin film
Below the Lambda point, zero viscosity lets capillary forces draw the fluid right up and over walls.
By encoding binary 0s and 1s into synthetic A, C, G, and T DNA bases, a single gram of nucleic acid can theoretically store ~215 petabytes for millennia without power.
Flash-heating the air channel to roughly 30,000 °C in microseconds causes explosive thermal expansion, generating the supersonic shockwave we hear as thunder.
At a precise combination of temperature and low pressure known as the 'triple point,' water exists simultaneously as ice, liquid, and vapor.
According to Einstein's general relativity, weaker gravity at higher altitudes causes clocks to tick faster by billionths of a second.