Slashdot Mirror
The Incredible Shrinking Compound
MrByte420 writes "This Rueters article talks about everyone's household product of the future, zirconium tungstate. This unusuall metal actually shrinks when heated contrary to most other compounds. This property holds within a huge temperature range shrinks uniformly making it a very pratical substance to work with. The huge potential is already being explored in areas such as better Fiber Optics, Chips that don't burn out, better dental fillings, and racing cars."
ya, ok its not a metal but ice shrinks when its heated
(I claim an extra 2 "Informatives" by reason that it was the same editor that posted this both times)
at a first glance, this is what the tired UNIX geek sees
Ok, so if this metal shrinks when it gets hot, does that mean that if your processor runs hotter, then it might run more efficiently? Or would that efficiency be lost because of the added heat to disturb the flow of the electrons? Perhaps they could create the chips in a cooler environment then expose it to normal temperatures to bring the micron sizes down further? Either way, shrinking metal sounds pretty cool to me.
Still it may well find itself in nanostructures as a crude muscle where ductility is of less importance.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
The one thing that struck me about the article is that the author must have previously believed that all solids expand when hot. He refers to it in some places as a law of physics or a "supposedly inviolable rule". That is silly. Everyone knows that ice expands when it cools and therefore shrinks when it heats up. If one fairly common compound can do it, there are probably several more that can as well. This one just happens to do it quite well.
The huge problem in canada, are the side walks tha break, or roads that constantly crack. That is due to the expanding in summer and contracting in winter... Would it be possible to mix cement with the compond so that it counters the effect, or at least dimishes the damages ?
--=.=-- www.cyber2000.qc.ca
See for example the work at Bell Labs reporting in 1998 which was also reported in the journal Nature (subscription required) as early as 1997. The mechanism by which this broad negative-TCE occurs is nonetheless spectacular -- the zirconia atoms basically get pulled in and fold over against each other as the oxygen atoms vibrate more intensely with heating. This recent announcement (and several more in the last few years) are Soundbite Science.
Would it be possible to mix this with other metals so that the resulting substance wouldn't change size at all under any temperature changes?
I also don't even know where to go for some technical literature, since I'm not a materials scientist.
Come on, give it up, that's
How is this different from that other metal that shrinks when heated, Nitinol? It's only from 1932, so I don't expect THAT to get in the way of the editiors...
What is wrong with this guy?
"Rueters"??? ITS REUTERS!
"unusuall" . . . do I, need... ARGH!
Look at the grammar! This guy reads slashdot, and he hasn't passed grade 5 english?
"This property holds within a huge temperature range shrinks uniformly making it a very pratical substance to work with."
What is a 'temperature range shrinks'??? I cant even make sense out of this nonsenseness in order to make a sensical joke about the nonesenseness of this sentence!
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
What is wrong with this guy?
He's been heavily researching another compound-- alcohol. It shrinks matter too, especially grey matter.
Come on. Any child of the 70s knows that there are things that shrink when heated.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Here's a how-I-understand-it description:
The problem with wires is that they expand; the more heat/current passing through, the more expansion. If you're trying to propagate a wave through something that's slightly cone-shaped (rather than tubular), the wave will lose some of its integrity (it'll get larger rather than keeping its original shape). Also, if the wire gets smaller as you heat it (like using ZrW2O8 for the entire thing), the wave will be distorted (it'll get smaller and smaller).
Fiberoptics use a combination of materials: one that is essentially a traditional wire, and one that shrinks when heated. This produces an expansion in the normal stuff, and shrinks the other, creating a net expansion of zero! This way, the cable stays essentially the same size its entire length, and can propagate your signal with few distortions.
Substances that shrink when heated aren't new, and ZrW2O8 isn't new either. Here's a 1998 PDF from NIST on the stuff.
The first few pages of this nice PDF have a history of fiberoptics (the rest is an ad for the company).
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein
quit whining and bitching like a 5th grader.
I have the luxury of a pet dental resident who is required to use new technology in his work, and as a result, I recently got one of these shrinky-dink filings. And let me tell you - though the inital pain is unbearable, after a day the pain is gone and the nerve is covered much more completely than the conventional filling materials. Having the worst teeth in the world (ok, maybe it was the 20 yrs w/o dental insurance..), I have too much exp w/ fillings going bad after a couple years, and this technology is a boon to anyone who's had a filling come out and a root canal ensue. The proof is, as they say, in the pudding, so I'm going off to lunch on it.
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested