Shiny Doom Forum

fate · Uber-Karma Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1178

http://www.physicsweb.org/articles/news/8/9/15/1

Corgren · Good Luck Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 149

I wonder what characteristics the solid state has? "gel" sounds a little soft, but a similar material might have interesting armor applications.
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rklee · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:54 pm Post subject:

"ordered, rigid structure" I am not sure this would be a good armor material though. Armor needs to be able to absorb a ton of energy and be ductile and perhaps 'hard' I don't think this would be any of that. I think you're talking about like bullet proof armor so the heat could harden the material right? For bullet stopping/catching, they really need a ton of area under the stress strain curve (ex. Kevlar is insanely ductile since it is a polymer and also has a high modulus of elasticity). Most polymers can absorb so much energy because it is caused by the slipping of the strands of polymers ... kinda like trying to pull super long pasta that's in a huge sticky messy heap.
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Corgren · Good Luck Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 149

Yeah, I figured /this/ one wouldn't, though I bet the "ordered structure" bit is just intended as an explanation of solids in general.

And as I think about it, the characteristics of the solid probably don't matter too much - by the time it has a chance to solidify, the bullet's likely out the other side Wink

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"Instead, it has always been there. I found it during the CT scan last year, when the mummy was lifted. It lay loose in the sand around the king's body. It was mummified," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.