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The Amazing Properties of Aerogel
RideMax writes "We all know NASA is using a substance called 'aerogel' in the Stardust spacecraft to catch pieces of the Wild-2 comet. The NYT is running an article about some other amazing aerogel properties. My favorite quote: 'It's the lowest density of any solid, and it has the highest thermoinsulation properties. Though it would be very expensive, you could take a two- or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot.'" We've looked at Aerogel before.
Though it would be very expensive, you could take a two- or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot.'
if you have the smallest crack in your house, then air will be allowed to escape. this means that you do not have a closed system. assuming that air is an ideal (or even a van der Waals) gas, if it heats up, it expands. this means that air escapes and the temperature sinks. hence you would NOT heat up your house with a candle. just think of the equation pV = NRT, i.e. T ~ 1/N (temperature proportional to 1/number of particles).
as a matter of fact, when you heat up a house, the air is not what keeps it hot. it is the items, such as walls, and stuff, which irradiate the heat off and so warm the room. if you now make walls out of a completeley nonheatconducting stuff, would it still work? i am not sure...
It can be used as a dessert topping and floor polish.
To keep this vaguely on topic, I'll bet FedEx would hate me if I tried to ship several cubic meters of this stuff, since they charge by weight.
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