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The World's Strongest Glue

missing_myself writes "Yahoo news reports the world's strongest glue is made by bacteria. "The adhesive can withstand an enormous amount of stress, equal to the force felt by a quarter with more than three cars piled on top of it." Time to get rid of the duct tape? "

13 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing new unit by qbwiz · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd never heard of this new "cars/quarter" unit (invented by the same guy who gave us the LoC unit, presumably), so I had to look it up to see that this glue can hold around 10,000 psi (70,000 kPa).

    --
    Ewige Blumenkraft.
    1. Re:Amazing new unit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's not too hard to design a glue that can withstand the force of three cars piled *on top* of a quarter, as opposed to three cars *hanging* from the quarter. There are two values: one for tensile strength, and one for compression strength. You reported the wrong one.

    2. Re:Amazing new unit by Manchot · · Score: 4, Informative

      Are you kidding me? Cars/quarter is definitely an SI unit, just like the area of a football field and the thickness of a human hair.

  2. Teflon too by kbob88 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently something similar happened with Teflon too. The engineers at Dupont spent a very long time trying to get it to adhere to various surfaces. Teflon is so non-sticky that it took them years to get it to stick to metal pots and pans. Finally they came up with techniques of multiple layering and various methods to bake it on. More at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_173.html

  3. Re:cars on a quarter? by darkitecture · · Score: 4, Informative

    Would the force change if 3 cars were piled onto a surface that was 1 square meter - no....

    Well, if there's more surface area, then there's a wider distribution of weight and the pressure per square inch would diminish.

  4. Re:Force? by vialation · · Score: 2, Informative

    F does equal M*A. In our world, the force of gravity follows this equation...the acceleration is commonly known as G, which is 9.8 m/s^2. So Force =G times mass. Therefore, the force is directly proportional to the mass, and the more stacked up upon it, the more force.

  5. Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is approximately: 3.876 * 10^-7 Eiffel Towers per square millicubit.
    Derivation:
    1 Car (average): 2 tons
    Surface area of a quarter: 462.244 mm^2
    1 Eiffel Tower (average): 7000 tons
    cubit (per google) = 45.72 cm
    millicubit = .4572 mm
    millicubit^2 = .20903184 mm^2
    3 cars / quarter = 6 tons / 462.244 mm^2
    1 Eiffel Tower / millicubit^2 = 7000 tons / .20903184 mm^2
    (6/462.244)/(7000/.20903184) = .000000387611 = 3.876 * 10^-7 Eiffel Towers per square millicubit

    Have a nice day! :)

  6. Re:Compression, tension, shear? by colinrichardday · · Score: 3, Informative

    Compression is pushing in on something, like cars on the road (the cars compress the road). Tension is pulling out on something, like hanging a weight on a string (the weight applies tension to the string). Shear involves applying a sideway force, like using shears to cut paper. The shears cut through the paper, and the cut is along the paper.

    Reinforced concrete combines the compression strength of concrete with the tensile strength of steel.

  7. Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    if america stepped into the 21st century, hell even the 20th century would do they would be using a standard ton, ie. 1000kg or the metric ton.

  8. Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?" by jcr · · Score: 2, Informative

    Think twice about that suggestion the next time you accidentally (or on purpose) stick some duct tape to any part of your exposed flesh.

    No problem. We shed skin constantly. Whatever gets stuck on you, wait a day or so and it will come off.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  9. Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?" by Feltope · · Score: 2, Informative

    I hear you but, you know I am a Marine (some would say former marine but there is no such thing)

    I have, and my corpsmen have, used duct tape in a number of situations when there was no other way to close a wound.

    so the point is don't discount the duct tape right away ;-)

    --
    thanks, Feltope
  10. Re:"Time to get rid of the duct tape?" by max99ted · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can confirm that - but only works well with planters warts. Also it usually takes a couple of months...

    --

    Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.

  11. Re:You and your fancy units . . . . . . by micheas · · Score: 2, Informative
    16 ounces to a pound,

    You grossly over simplify our system.

    For example "which is heavier a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?"

    31 grams in an ounce of gold. (troy ounces)
    28 grams in an ounce of feathers. (imperial ounces)

    373 grams in a pound of gold (12 ounces in a troy pound)
    454 grams in a pound of feathers (16 ounces in an imperial pound)

    So counter intitively a pound of feathers is heaver than a pound of gold. But 16 ounces of gold does weigh more than 16 ounces of feathers.

    Want to get into get into measures of volume? They make our systems of measuring mass seem sane.