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Liquid Armor the New Bulletproof Vest
kjh1 writes "Armor Holdings Inc. plans to start selling their 'liquid armor' next year. The new armor, originally envisioned to be spread on like peanut butter, is instead sprayed onto Kevlar in ultrathin coats. From the article: 'it's a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. Together they produce a "sheer-thickening liquid" that stiffens instantly into a shield when hit hard by an object. It reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates.'"
There's a video on break.com where you can see the liquid armor in action - it's pretty amazing:
clicky
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
Ok, forget the bulletproof vests, because I'll never need one. But how much would it cost to coat your car in this stuff? And would it give extra protection?
Philosophy.
First the military is developing something called an "ultrasonic tourniquet", now somebody is making bulletproof peanut butter?? Fuck this shit, the universe is just too weird right now. I am going to bed.
"it's a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives..."
As if having a gun fired at you isn't enough to make you shit your pants...
I remember reading one of Larry Niven's books where they had a "soft" armor suit which was just like clothing normally but would stiffen instantly if hit by high kinetic force.
Surely shear-thickening?
somebody please make it free like free software
-- "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" - TAE --
Just make the whole uniform out of kevlar coated with this stuff. Might not need that many layers before your regular uniform is bullet resistant...
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
No doubt the first folk to use this will be the bad guys. Planning or carrying a gun or a knife to protect yourself? Well, in a year's time it will be a waste of time, cos that mugger will just laugh in your face. And steal the gun after you've wasted your bullets.
Maybe I should stop being a cynic.
Can they produce gloves able to stand up to shark bites ?
How about gloves for butchers ?
Would they be cheaper to produce than the steel-ring gloves used today ?
Are they water proof ?
How do they react to heat; could they be used in motorcycle clothing ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
My snobby boss loves to swim in his private pool. Oh, what fun it would be to coat the surface of it with this stuff so when he dives in head first he gives himself a nose bleed. Of course the stuff will instantly reliquify, letting him slide into the water like he just got the worst belly-flop ever.
But could it stop a lightsaber? Cause you know there's scientists in North Korea working on lightsaber technology. Mr. President, we cannot allow a lightsaber gap!
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
So basicly they're making military use custard (being gentle will let you penetrate it, but use force and you bounce off). Buug how will this stand up against a knife or a bayonet? I know in the modern era this is more or less mute, but it's still something I'd personally wonder about.
I like muppets.
Although I am not sure what the point of it being in this state protects more? Does it weigh less?
:D
Anyway kids if you want to create your own non-newtonian fluid fluid at home heres how.
1. Get your custard power, or corn starch (think baking soda can be used too).
2. Get a dish or a cup. More fun with a large jar though.
3. Add some water to the container and proceed to mix as much powder as possible into the water until it gets to a weird creamy/solid state.
You now have something which is a liquid and solid at the same time. Enjoy!
Has someone sold the Emperor a suit made out of Silly Putty
With better armor there'll be a need for better weapons capable of penetrating said armor.
(Guess why modern soldiers don't wear full plate anymore. History repeats itself.)
As armor gets better, weapons get more damaging - not only to the targets protected by armor, but also everything else.
'bout time we got our Compound 17/18!
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
No text really.
Great Intellect...
The fascinating thing about this is that it will just change the weapons. Better armour means just one thing, better weapons. So you can't stab a guard with a shiv, they'll find another, probably more gruesom way of penetrating the thin blue line.
Never the less, liquid armour sounds cool, can I have it in my motorbike kit? Lighter, more flexible armour that resists penetration can only make landing in a hedge that little bit safer. Of course, better armour means more dangerous riding...
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
What we can expect in the 21st century:
http://outcampaign.org/
"Not only does it repel bullets and shrapnel, but for the soldier in the field who has a bit of constipation, just a bit of this 'Oxy-Flow' and you're regular."
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
This stuff sounds like a dilatant.
Kitchen experiment: take some cornflour and some water. Mix one part of water to about two parts of cornflour until you get a thick paste. Play with it.
If you apply gentle pressure, it behaves like a fluid. If you apply strong pressure, it abruptly solidifies. Scoop up a handful and throw it at something, and it'll bounce. Drop something heavy into a bucket of it and it'll sink.
Beach sand also manifests this behaviour, under certain situations; occasionally you can find a patch of heavily waterlogged sand that's rock hard when you walk across it, but if you stand still you slowly find yourself sinking in.
Disclaimer: cornflour almost certainly does not make good body armour.
we should start stabbing people slowly now....
Hmm
I wonder if a slow projectile would get through? Ok, obligatory Dune reference in the heading, but still I wonder...
It's in Dune. Shields result in a form of fighting in which the object is to make way for a slow knife atatck that will go through the shield. Off-topic, it's a pity that Herbert didn't stop at the first book because the rest were so poor by comparison. He used up a lifetime of good ideas in one book and couldn't think of any others. Sad...a friend once suggested that the only titles missing from the series were Dune Buggy and Dune ot forsake me oh my darling.
Pining for the fjords
Imbaciles! Can't they provide some pictures/videos with the armour in action?!
ilovegeorgebush
Ok, it might stop the bullet going through the skin but the second level damage could easily still put you out of action. From watching the video there's a fair amount of flex in the product.
Imagine a heavy round being stopped by your kneecap.
1) Clever Sig 2) ????? 3) Profit!
The problem is not only the bullet's ability to pierce the armour, but the energy it transfers through the armour. This company : http://www.d3o.com/ use a similar technique but instead of leaving it as liquid, they treat it in a way which turns it into a foam structure. I beat the crap out of a friend's elbows and knees with a shovel while he was wearing d30 stuff, and he didn't feel a thing. It's quite amazing.
...but look down. We'd have joined each other in death.
--Dune
could this be like the basic building block of a future t-1000 from t2??? ;)
supposedly mix a network of nano-chips and it might be able to morph...
am i too far off?
cool idea though right?
GUI == Graphical User Interference
If you want to see a similar substance in action, just mix cornstarch and water together in a bowl.
a rch=science
It handles like a liquid if you move your finger through it slowly, but if you punch it it will act like a solid.
Neat video of cornstarch and water: http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=CH6-2UizHfI&se
1) The 'injured stormtrooper' fan film.
2) What if he shot you in the face?
you dissapoint me slashdot, I expected at least one person to come up with a Snow Crash reference.
... can it be used for... sex? Seriously, would this make condoms truely unbreakable?
I'm appalled that no one has suggested jock strap/athletic supporter.
Kevlar undies here we come! Oh, and if Materazzi had been wearing this
stuff in the final those Zidane spoof videos flooding the tubes would
be very different.
"No baby, this time we're not rubbing eachother in with peanut butter but with liquid armour"
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
"A bullet will bounce off it like a wren hitting a patio door...feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of phone books."
The article states that the material returns to a liquid state rapidly after pressure ceases (which I assume would help further with shock dissipation), but how fast is that? Combat will just require a different approach to breach the defence. Off the top of my head, it woould seem that if your clothing suddenly stiffens, you're vulnerable to attack, especially if you're in the middle of doing something dangerous that requires the use of your limbs.
I just read the novel "Map of Bones" by James Rollins, and his characters makes use of this Liquid Body Armor. He mentioned in the foreward that it was real technology, and that was the first time I heard about it.
It was a thrilling read, too!
Having only watched the video (not RTFA), my question is how the liquid will prevent damage to the body. The video shows that the material will repel the bullet, but not that it will prevent the momentum from transerfing to what it protects. Will it spread the damage enough to prevent fatality in someone who gets shot? Or is this only good for armoured cars in war zones?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Sounds a bit like corn starch. From my PMK days (sigh, Alisha), I remember seeing demos of cornstarch mixed with water. It appears liquidy, but if you smack your hand down in it, it turns to a solid instantly and temporarily, so no splashing occurs. Kinda freaky.
The WikiPedia entry actually has a video of this.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Darn. Now I'll have to respec my Rogue to use maces instead of daggers.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Hah! Look folks! I'm going to put peanut butter on this sheet of Kevlar. BAM!!! See? The bullet didn't go through! Bullet-proof peanut butter! Only $49.95 while supplies last! Better hurry!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I usually don't spread peanut butter on my clothes.
At least not on purpose
Awesome! Now John Connor has a defence against shape-shifting Terminators!
You must think in Russian.
I stand corrected. View the very nice clicky post at the beginning of the comments to understand how it really works.
The question is, can it be used (in sufficiently thick amount?) without hard-to-get materials like kevlar? I am really asking if you can make this at home. From the brief vid, it looked like point 5) above is very possible.
"Thus, if you don't give a shit about the other guys as long as your kids are safe..."
;-)
Is it just my prejudice, or is this the prime reason people drive around in those big honking oversized cars called "sports utility vehicles"? (Another reason being using sheer size to brag and intimidate others with...)
(Grudgy, me? Why, never!
"Good news, everyone!"
All you need to do is mix LOTS of flour with water. it is then a thick paste. Hit it with a hammer at it cracks like a solid under the shock before it instantly reliquifies
"Sintered Armorgel ; feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books"
Maybe they should ask Neal Stephenson about using that as an ad slogan.
I could see this being used as a full-body spray-on armour. Sure, it would still be likely lethal if your shot in the head (since even if the bullet isn't allowed to pierce the skull, the impact alone would probably kill you), and it could be potentially lethal if shot in the neck or side of the face, but even so, if you can prevent the bullet from penetrating the body, the chances of survival increase dramatically. Now, even a shot to the leg would never be fatal. Even though it would hurt tremendously, without piercing the skin, there is no chance to bleed out (internal bleeding is another matter entirely).
To me, the most important factor is going to be how easy it is to get off the body once it's on, especially in emergency situations, such as after someone has been shot and if there is internal bleeding from the impact that a surgeon needs to get to.
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neat stuff.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I know this is pedantic, but shouldn't it be "SHEAR-thickening liquid"?
TFA says sheer-thickening but that doesn't make sense to me.
sheer != shear.
-Styopa
The automotive companies have actually done some fantastic things over the last 30 years with respect to occupant safety. Now the driving public needs to do their part and stop driving like they have a "New Game" menu selection on their dash.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
"What's the matter, private?"
:)
"I'm sorry, sergeant, but I kinda, uhm... spilled some of my bulletproof armor..."
Then again... What if the soldiers get shot in the face? I guess that's a risk their officers are willing to take.
That was my objection to the movie. If you read the book, they all had mobile armour (and not soft, liquid armour either) with jetpacks and were spread about 100 yards apart when in combat. The only thing in that movie had in common with Heinlien's work was the title
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
Sure hope it's waterproof too, or we'll have to save crime fighting for fair weather
That's why I always aim for the face.
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Unfortunately I don't think sharks will be biting fast enough for this stuff to help.
It's the velocity of the object hitting the liquid that determines whether or not (or how much) it resists.
For my trip with Nessus to the Ringworld!
Only true of classc armor-piercing rounds which try to poke through like an icepick. Those which fragment and attempt to cut through fibre armor cause almost as nasty of wounds as hollow points.
In other news, the birth rate has risen by more than 42%.
Given that Iraqi insurgent snipers are smart enough to aim for the gaps in Americans' body armour - article - flexable armour, even if's only used to cover joints, would be a very good thing.
Even the article is from 6 days in the future, according to the date on it.
Rhadamanth Nemes had this and it didn't stop Raul Endymion from kicking her ass ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(book)
Wish I could remember the mag I read it in, but there is some company working Motocross gear made from simialr stuff. It created a Roost Guard (chest/shoulder protector) from foam coated with this stuff. The foam was flexible until impact, then the foam became rigid absorbing the impact. The rigidity was based on the speed of compression of the foam. The faster the impact the harder the foam. So for regular riding, it was like wearing a 1/2" layer of flexible foam. If the bike in front spit up a rock, it hit your chest and became hard during the impact then soft again. Or as soon as you went over your bars and landed on your shoulder, the shoulder area became rigid during impact then soft as you lay on the ground wondering what happpend. The last demo was actually going into the bars with your chest and having the whole chest plate harden during impact!
I think the projected public delivery date was around 2008 but for the life of me I cant find the article again. I do remember that it was a British company making the stuff.
If their puncture proof, this could be used in medical gloves to prevent medical practitioners (and patients) from accidental puncture of their gloves. Stopping anything from puncturing could reduce a lot of risk from doctors dealing with agitated patients with infectious diseases.
Or how about on environment (hazmat) suits? Or space suits? A lot of useful safety applications if it can resist punctures in those dangerous environments.
Funny that they use an ingredient found in laxatives for all of those "oh crap" moments.
www.wildpad.com
In my neck of the woods we call it beer (liquer, wine, etc...). After a sufficient amount one becomes bullet proof. Sometimes invisible.
You make the common mistake of considering the sequels to be the same sort of book as the original Dune. The first book is mostly an adventure novel. The later books are much more weighted towards religion, politics, and philosophy. Book 2 and 3 are tough to get through (at least the first time, I found they were easier and more enjoyable upon re-reading). You definitely can't approach them expecting the same hero-villian adventure-battle-conquest scenario.
Frankly, Lord of the Rings is a grade school fairy tale compared to the Dune series. There are very few books that address the scope of history that Dune presents. The first book is a basic adventure but the subsequent books explore the nature of heros, mesiahs, and rulers throughout a vast span of (future) history.
Even if they were biting fast enough, it would be like getting your hand hit with a sledgehammer instead of an axe. Not much comfort.
"Mommy mommy where's the reset button!?"
- Lazlo, Chatterbox, GTAIII
Much as I love Neal, Larry Niven was way ahead of him on this idea. Check out: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=942
I loved the idea in the Ringworld books. Very clever technology that subtly changed the rules of combat. Larry Niven is the man.
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I think most women are pretty disbelieving at claims of:
"It gets hard, I promise!"
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
The way I learned to make it was a very simple two parts cornstarch to one part water. A few drops of green food coloring helps the whole green-slime effect immensely.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I am definitely going to get one of these to protect myself from my wife.
Full Tilt
In related news, several members of the notorious gun hackers gang were found dead today. Strangely, their bodies were smeared with peanut butter.
The video pointed out that if the new armor was agitated, it would harden. This makes me wonder if the armor wouldn't be applied to the joint areas in order to prevent the armor from prematurely hardening and thus becoming less effective, if not ineffective.
~UP
Eat the Path.
he could evade things better
Do a barrel roll?
I heard somewhere that they were already using this for professional soccer (football) shin gaurds.
So you get hit by a big slug, and all your clothes instantly stiffen with the absorbed energy, clubbing you across your whole body?
This tech will be really exciting when the stiffening material can leave creased joints for flexibility as the material stiffens.
It will have fully arrived when the material can combine nanoparticles upon impact, ejecting them back along the incoming vector of the impacting bullet. "Firing back" automatically.
--
make install -not war
Another company, d3o Labs, has developed a similar substance, but they've been adapting it to sports applications -- ski racing suits, hockey pads, and sneakers.
Everyone has forgotten their classic SciFi.
Nice pair of Deerskin gloves with a layer of this inside would make brass knuckles so obsolete...
Didn't the personal shields in Dune have a similar purpose (stop fast-moving objects, allow small forces)? The way they got around this in Dune was to stab someone slowly. I imagine that's still possible with this armour, same way you can stab through custard+water or whatever.
They just scrape you off the dashboard and sell it to someone else.
-Sinbad
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Even big heavy modern cars have crumple zones engineered in. A 6000 lb car with a crumple zone will always be safer than a 6000 lb car without a crumple zone.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Crossbow bolts and longbow arrows also sucked big time. Come to think of it, chainmail didn't help much with catapult rocks or burning oil either. I guess war just sucked pretty much all the time for the participants.
I'm sure you've already got a hundred responses, but I'll throw in my two cents. I have been in two traffic accidents (both many years ago as a young driver). The first accident was in an early 90s Mitsubishi. I hit a tree squarely, head on, going less than ten miles per hour, and the car stopped when the engine hit the tree. The car was totally demolished. To give you an idea of the situation, I was just pulling out of a parking lot from a full stop, and an SUV decided not to yield the right-of-way, and I decided to veer over off the road, instead of being hit by the SUV. The tree was less than fifteen feet from where I started at a dead stop. And it was a total loss.
The other accident, was in a 1983 Oldsmobile Toronado, a four thousand pound beast of iron and steel. In this car, I was doing the speed limit (thirty-five or forty) on a relatively twisty back road, when I crested a hill, and as it dipped and curved, I hit six inches of standing water that had collected from the previous day's rain. The car hydroplaned, and hit the guardrail on the front left corner at full speed, spun around, hit the guardrail on the other side of the road, before stopping, pointed back in the direction I'd come.
The only damage to the vehicle was that the piston on the bumper was compressed, where I'd first hit the guardrail, and there was no damage in the spot where I'd hit the other guardrail. There was a small crack in the plastic wheel-well cover, but no other damage to the car. I was able to drive it home, without any problem.
Sure, I might have been killed if I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. And sure in a crash at highway speeds, it's good if the car sacrifices itself for you. But at ten miles an hour, a car shouldn't be totaled. And I can't help but think that if I'd been in the Mitsubishi in the second accident, the car would have ended up a ball of debris hanging from a tree, and I probably would have been killed anyway... and even if not, this was before cell phones, and it would have been an awful long walk back to civilization.
--brianI became suspicious when I read the phrase "nano bits of silica". Nano technology my big toe: that's a marketing flourish.
The article mentions that this is a sheer thickening fluid, what they probably mean is shear thickening. That would be a fluid where the coefficient of viscosity increases with increasing strain rates, instead of remaining the classically Newtonian constant. In this case it's probably because the glycol tangles around the silica particles and can't untangle quickly.
While it's quite possible the material can become a semi-solid for the brief duration of a dynamic impact there is no reason to believe, and lots of reasons to not to believe, it becomes a particularly strong solid. In a particulate reinforced composite, which this is in its pseudo-solid state, the matrix (the ethylene glycol) is important to the strength and being a simple organic molecule it's strength must be on the same order of, say, polyethylene.
TFA itself infers this, noting the original idea of using the material itself (in peanut-butter mode) didn't work out. Instead it is employed as the matix in a conventional fiber composite using Kevar or Spectra or something like that as the workhorse.
As in all conventional fiber composites, the fiber bears the load, the matrix supports the fiber. In this case the support, I conjecture, amounts to preventing the fibers from displacing away from the impact point, probably allowing fewer layers of fiber to absorb a given impact energy.
Whle this is innovative and a good idea, it's hardly liquid armour. What I would hope for and maybe expect is better performance against pointy, hard, teflon-coated projectiles of the cop-killer variety which work by nosing the fibers out of the way.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Frankly, Lord of the Rings is a grade school fairy tale compared to the Dune series. There are very few books that address the scope of history that Dune presents. The first book is a basic adventure but the subsequent books explore the nature of heros, mesiahs, and rulers throughout a vast span of (future) history.
I would have to disagree. It seems to me that both The Lord of the Rings and The Dune Chronicles (by which I mean the six Dune books that Frank Herbert wrote) are sui generis. There are points of comparison, but they are limited by the differences in scope and focus. Dune is in some ways a classical tragedy, i.e., a story of the nobility exalted by their virtues and brought down by their humanity. The Lord of the Rings, while also a tragedy in some sense, takes its cast of characters from more layers of society: many are nobles or even godlike, but some are very, very humble or even profoundly debased.
Moving beyond the question of focal characters to the unities of time that you refer to, The Lord of the Rings is on its face much more compact than The Dune Chronicles. However, Herbert plays fast and loose (as is his right) with the flow of time. He polevaults over 3000 years of future history between the last word of Children of Dune and the first word of God Emperor of Dune. He appears (IIRC) to do it again between God Emperor and Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune. In other words, The Lord of The Rings shows unities of time that Herbert deliberately discards.
I suppose I can sum my thoughts up by saying that comparing the Dune Chronicles to LOTR seems to be a lot like comparing da Vinci's Last Supper with Michelangelo's work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Each one is a masterwork in its own right. Each artist chose a specific scope and worked within that scope as he saw fit. Neither should be faulted for not being the other.
I had that thought when I was a kid in the 1980's... Wow, this stuff is soft when you move it slow, but if you hit it hard, it gets stiff really fast.. I wonder if you could change it slightly and then make armor out of it.
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
Mitsubishis are some of the shittiest import cars in terms of reliability (including behavior during accidents). Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Subaru: all worlds better.
Hit a tree at 10mph in a Honda Odyssey and you will need to replace your bumper (if you mind that dent in it).
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Situation: I've got the "green", he ignores the red, our cars "meet".
Equipment required: (Escort)
- "jaws of life" (to remove driver's door)
- back board and neck brace (to remove driver)
- large white vehicle with garish lights and loud siren (to transport driver)
- large flat-bed truck (to transport Escort)
- City work truck (to transport concrete for patching curb which forcibly removed Escort's rear wheel during "meeting")
Equipment required: (Catalina)Synopsis: In contest between Catalina and Escort, bet on the Catalina.
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
I'm surprised no one mentioned how similar this is to so many sci-fi (especially sci-fi rpg) standard materials out there: rigid plastic that immediately hardens with impact, forming a temporary hard surface.
What I'm wondering is: how long before we see martial arts equipment makers selling gloves made with the stuff. Imagine two thin layers of a fabric with a layer of this liquid between them. Nice soft pliable gloves usable for grabbing and grappling, but which become like brass knuckles when you punch someone.
You wouldn't even need the stuff to be "everywhere" on the glove. Just along the knuckles and back of the first (base) digit for conventional fist strikes (maybe along the 2nd digit for those kinds of strikes), along the side of the palm for strikes along there. And then maybe a gauntlet type long glove with the stuff along the forearm for protecting the arm during blocking. Actually, with a long gauntlet type glove, you might be able to get several of the benefits of a tonfa out of your glove (using it for both blocking and striking). (but not all of the benefits, as a tonfa gets some benefits out of rotating it around its handle, that cause some extra kinetic energy).
I wonder if it would be good or bad for race car driver body suits. Wonder where else it'd be good.
Larry Niven's Known Space series has armor exactly like this, that stiffens on impact. The only thing the armor has in common with Dune is that a slow impact gets through, IIRC in Dune they used some kind of force field. Larry describes what it's like to try to run in a suit like this while being peppered with automatic gunfire. Kinda funny. I don't think the Dune force fields stiffened up and made you fall over while being shot...
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Well done. This is the first slashdot post I've ever actually laughed at aloud. (I'm not a moderator or I'd mark it funny =)
My ex girlfriend, who I hear now also spreads like peanut butter.
Feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of bricks..
(Snowcrash, Neil Stephenson. Don't have the book on hand, so the quote could be off, but the jist of it is right.)
More Caffeine. NOW
This stuff sounds like liquid "Stretch Armstrong". The thing was pretty mushy and pliable, but, man if you got hit over the head with one of those...you were 'out' for awhile...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
All I need to do is make a batsuit, coat it in this stuff, and I'll be bulletproof.
Did this strike a familiar chord with anyone else who's read books by Ringo/Weber (military futuristic sci-fi authors). I remember in particular that the series starting with "March Upcountry" had chameleon suits which, in addition to camoflague, had very similar properties in that they would absorb and spread out hits by kinetic weapons.
One of the comments attached to the article mentions an offensive use as well in sci-fi:
Life imitates art; John M. Brunner anticipated this many years ago in his science fiction classic, "Stand on Zanzibar." Characters wore what was called a "Karatang" on their hand. Worn like a glove, they remained flexible until they were used to strike an object, whereupon they hardened into a steel-like gauntlet, packing a serious "punch.
I prefer the idea of dissipative armor, but it's nice to see that fantasy can still become reality.
Damm good read, by the way, if you like well crafted space opera.. Ian M. Banks, and Alastair Reynolds fans, you have to read the trilogy..
Offtopic, I know, but would appreciate any good recommendations along the same lines.. I've got some time on my hands, and want to read some nice books.
Sounds like this might be something NASA could be interested in for protection against micrometeoroid strikes in space. For instance, you could use it for space suits (nobody's been killed this way yet, although it's always a possibility), but also for space ships in general and perhaps even exposed portions of a hypothetical moon base (assuming most of it will be built underground). Of course, it would be most practical if the stuff could be made to stand up the the vacuum and extreme temperatures.
I am not a physicist nor am I an engineer, but I think this is called a non-newtonian fluid.
If it is, that is pretty cool. I remember trying to figure a use for fluids with this kind of property.
you can experiment with non-newtonian fluids at home by taking a small amount of water, say a glass full, and adding lots and lots of cornstarch. When you have added enough, the fluid will flow slowly, but when you hit it with a spoon, it will be rigid.
Well, it would be better than making a BLT roll ( with extra mayo )
"Arg! My squeedleespooch!" -Zim, Invader Zim
Of course, while it would be about the most bad-ass thing I could possibly own :), a real light saber wouldn't do much of anything to modern warfare. It's still a sword (I suppose they could make light-bayonets :)), and the use of melee weapons has been greatly reduces in todays world.
Despite our notions of the robed Jedi masters walking around, in real life the lightsaber would probably be more useful in construction or manufacturing than on the battlefield.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Now, I just want to know what's going through the mind of someone who thinks of peanut butter as the
natural thing that comes to mind here. Maybe it's a common activity just not in my town?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Damon Wayans invented this in 1994! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankman. He sprayed it on his clothes and made hime bulletproof!
And in mouse traps.
Luis Wu unimpressed and unavailable for comment.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
I mean, just because you don't like SUV's, that gives you the right to tell other people what they can and can't do.
God, I am so sick of little tin-pot, busy-body, wannabe dictators like you. ESAD
This could apply to condoms. Sperms shoot out at 50 mph in a piercing motion. Plus, it'll feel better for the women. Most women I know hate condoms because of the feel so they tell their mates to do it raw and withdraw before sperms shoot out. This new condom could prevent high school pregnancy. Should have told my friend about this.
Is it just me who wants to fill a pool with this stuff and then sit back with a camera?
Did anyone else notice the "bullet" in this video was a pellet?
Am I seeing things?
A pointed pellet for your consideration.
"Sheer-thickening?"
Learn to spell, sheesh.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
From the video:
"I can't remember ever once leaving the base thinking 'I'm one hundred percent safe'."
That's why they call it a warzone, not 'staying in bed all day, contemplating wether to do someting usefull with your life.'
And even then, you could die of sudden heart failure or one of Osama's pal going for his '747 exam.
I suspect as personal body armor improves firearms will improve too. - Same way anti-tank projectiles did. Next step is cumulative projectiles -if the armor because so dense and hard to penetrate ,just burn it trough. Protection vs cumulative projectiles is expensive in terms of space and weight and while tank can afford it (barely) I doubt personal body vest can.
Though before that I think there is still quite enough room to improve bullets and ammo.
cheaper bulletproof cars might be a real blessing. I wonder if this stuff could be made to work on glass windows as well.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Bill Hicks predicted the future:
*pshwhshswsh*
"What's that?"
"Musket repellant."
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Why not connect the bumpers to the frame with shock absorbers?
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8721&f eedId=online-news_rss20
Point #1: Momentum is a vector quantity. This means that a bullet approaching a person from the left and a bullet leaving said person, heading right, have totally different momentum vectors.
Point #2: In situations where outside forces can be ignored (such as a bullet impact), momentum is said to be "conserved". This means that any momentum change the bullet experiences has to be equal and opposite to the momentum change the person experiences. A bullet of mass "m" which is travelling to the right at speed "v" has momentum "mv" (taking the direction "right" to be positive). Similarly, the same bullet travelling to the left at speed "v" has momentum "-mv". Therefore, a bullet which ricochets off at its initial speed has TWICE the momentum change compared to a bullet which simply stops. As a result, the person has to experience double the momentum change as well.
This means that a ricochet imparts MORE momentum to the target than an embedded bullet would, which is (as another poster remarked) why solar sails are reflective.
and bugs.
Isn't this basically Silly Putty?
If you roll it into a ball, it will bounce off of hard surfaces; but gentle pressure will deform it like peanut butter...
Perhaps it will be used by secret agents to copy documents without a camera by pressing against it...
*joke* I hear they're going to be testing this in the near future on a Chevy Corvette. (Original plans were for a Pontiac Firebird, but that model was discontinued during development, so an alternative GM sports car was selected.) Long-term plans for the vehicle include military applications, however civillian law-enforcement has also been discussed. Vigilante testing has proven successful, but met with mixed approval. K.I.T.T. pilot, David Hasselhoff was unavailable for comment. :)
super saturarted corn starch solution in water is pure liquid pour it in a pie tin and slap it REALLY HARD...
Silly Putty...it bounces but will drip down
Gak! Throw it against a wall...
It's not surprising. That killer cyborg in Terminator 2 has liquid armor. And he's from THE FUTURE.
Remember they also had portable rocket launchers (redeemer missles) with low yield nukes attached. The trick to surviving the bugs is to sprinkle this liquid stuff on your helmet so their brain suckers can't get you.
Back when I first heard of "oobleck" (though it was called "blue ooze" by the guys who told me about it, for some reason), I thought of this precise application.
m l
http://sciconn.mcb.arizona.edu/oobleck/oobleck.ht
"Moods are for cattle and love-play Potatoface! Defend yourself!"
Doesn't everyone in high school physics do the problem that demonstrates why it hurts more to be hit with a bouncing ball as opposed to a non-bouncing ball? This one is right next to the running through rain gets you more wet than walking on my old old physics homework.
All right Jimmy, you got that liquid armor on, it looks good... They want you to stand infront of this fireing squad, and you tell us if it hurts when they shoot ya.
Well, all right, hold my sign. I don't wanna lose it.
There's no place like ~/
No, you guys are still confusing total energy and force. You're not creating energy by bouncing something off the armor, but you do require more force to reverse it's direction. It requires force to make something change direction. Thus, you must apply more force to reverse an object than to stop it (assuming the time of application of the force is the same). That force is applied by the armor/body. However, as I said in my previous post, what really matters is how much 1) time and 2) area this force is applied over.
Interestingly, I got an off-topic for the gp post, though agreed I invited it. But none of the respondents got an OT. Somewhere is a dim mod fanboy with no sense of humor.
Let's give him another chance in case he is still looking for opportunities.
The first book, is in my probably insufficiently humble opinion, a very well written adventure novel with some interesting ideas, though what a pity so many American SF writers are obsessed with aristocracies and empires as their themes. Over-compensation? The other books contain (in my probably equally dubious opinion) poorly written meanderings on religion, politics and philosophy which would cause you to fail a degree course in any of those subjects. Leto wittering on about being the ultimate predator? Scope of history? Believe me, there is more and deeper religious and political theorising, better presented, in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books than in the Dune series or Lord of the Rings.
Pining for the fjords
Actually that one was worked out in Myth Busters. A brisk walk was deemed best under most rain conditions.
Swap your uzi for a hairdryer. Liquid armour defeated!
Next!
How well would this work as armor for motorcyclists? I spend a lot of time trying to find gear that's comfortable enough to wear as normal clothing. Both so that I'm comfortable on the bike, and so I don't have to spend so much time gearing up and down for each trip, even it it's only to the convenience store.
plus-good, double-plus-good
But seriously, how would you actually eat this stuff? It would get rock hard on each bite, then soften up. My dog would go nuts!
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
And Dizzy was a man! ...wait, wait... Does that mean that in Verhoeven's transcendental universe Johnny Rico is gay?!?!
---k--
</stupid>
They invented Silly Putty?
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
The new armor, originally envisioned to be spread on like peanut butter, is instead sprayed onto Kevlar in ultrathin coats.
So they spray this stuff onto bulletproof material to make it... bulletproof? I'm not sure how this makes an improvement on the original.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Holtzman effect generated by a Holtzman Generator!
Though as the sheilds also had the small drawback of attracting Worms and the slightly larger drawback of triggering a cascading nuclear fusion reaction when hit by the most common weapon of the time the lasgun. The shields weren't actually used much.
spelling nazi time...
Interesting quote, was he quoting an idiot, because it makes no sense? I suspect "Shear-thickening liquid" is the accurate quote, which is both logical and an accurate description of what the fluid is doing.
err!
jak.