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The Plastic Fractal Magnet
bedessen writes "An article at NewsFactor summarizes the developments in new plastics that exhibit magnetic fields of fractal dimensions. Whereas a simple bar magnet produces magnetic fields that go from the north pole to the south pole, the fields of the new hybrid plastic sprout like branches of a cactus lined with secondary fields that resemble needles. As these fields become increasingly interlocked, they exhibit a unique kind of order. This intensely ordered structure might one day be key to storing information with a very high density. The researchers behind this are Arthur Epstein, director of the Center for Materials Research at Ohio State University, and Joel Miller, a professor of chemistry at the University of Utah. There's also this PDF overview of the subject, which is quite technical but still readable."
This new fractal magnet will allow my flux-capacitor to send this message BACK IN TIME... to get first post! .....
Great Scott!
From the article:
The plastic ultimately stabilized in 1.6 dimensions at a temperature of minus 269 degrees Celsius (minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit).
I'd be happy if my girlfriend would stabilize in three dimensions at room temperature.
How long do you think it'll take for them to figure that one out?
My
Limekiller
Practical Applications?
Finally! A fractal magnet that will stick to my fractal refrigerator! The normal magnets always fell off because it doesn't have a flat surface.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I'm so used to coming home from the bars and getting very basic "here's an update to this" or "here's a new apache module" from slashdot.
:)
But when I come home at 5 in the morning, not quite so sober, and you're talking about half dimensions? That's just not nice.... What the hell am I supposed to wrap my brain around? If it's only half dimensional, does that mean I only have to wrap just my left lobe around it? I'm sooooooo lost....
They had enough fun with plain ol' obloidish magnetic field calculations. Can you imagine the math once we start throwing in fractals?
May we never see th