Slashdot Mirror
5 Strangest Materials
MattSparkes writes to tell us that NewScientist recently posted a quick look at five interesting materials with some very strange properties. There are liquids you can walk on, liquids that will escape containers by creeping up the sides, and magnetic liquids that can easily show you the shape of magnetic fields. The story also offers video links to display some of more amazing properties described.
I would like to nominate whatever the hell Wonder Bread is made from.
One tiny loaf can turn an entire nation into disgusting bloated sacks of lazy crap.
Truly a mystery of the ages.
Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em
I always wondered why I kept sliding out of the bath.
Now I know its just because my atoms all have the same quantum state.
liqbase
When I read about the fluid that can flow up the sides of a container, all I could think about was THE BLOB!
FairTax baby!
According to TFA, "To make a superfluid you must cool helium down to a couple of a degrees below zero - not one to try at home."
Now I'm no physicist, but I'm pretty sure a couple of degrees below absolute zero isn't possible, and on any other scale I can think of, it's a bit warm for superfluids. I guess he meant "above zero", although a unit would still have been useful. Funnily enough, I was just bitching about scientific faux pas in the mainstream media, but New Scientist?
Oh no... it's the future.
The simple liquid capable of making clothes come off, cars swerve, and random impregnation?
Video for Online Dating Profiles
Really? Jesus!
<sorry - had to do it.>
Funny you should say that as I read this today:
"...Yesterday, government scientists suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women. To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologize when wrong. No further testing is planned..."
Unfortunately, it does not include the mysterious liquid that prevents servers from being slashdotted.
Coral cache link
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
and go looking for 'that boy'?
Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. The result is an extremely low density solid with several remarkable properties, most notably its effectiveness as an insulator. It is nicknamed frozen smoke, solid smoke or blue smoke due to its semi-transparent nature and the way light scatters in the material; however, it feels like extruded polystyrene to the touch.
At the end of this video there is a short part about the fluid going upwards. http://web.ujf-grenoble.fr/PHY/FOREXPER/TPhelium/p ages/Presentation%20film.html
They left out elastic fluids, such as a mixture of high molecular weight polyethylene oxide in water. Once the fluid begins to pour out of its container, it will partially empty the container, even if righted. This is the open siphon effect. If while pouring out the fluid, you cut it with scissors, the fluid will snap back into the beaker like a rubber band. This can all be done at room temperature.
What makes this happen is the high molecular weight polyer. The molecules become entangled, and when poured, they pull each other along, resulting in the emptying of the container.
These fluids also exhibit other interesting behaviours, such as the Weissenberg effect, where when rotating rod is placed in the fluid, the fluid climbs up the rod. Also, add some particles (or bubbles), start stirring, then suddently remove the stirring rod, you will see the fluid snap back when it comes to rest.
Funny note: as i was looking for the thermodynamic properties of plutonium, ebay promised to make me a great offer on it. Seriously, like ice it will expand and get less dense as it drops in temperature. Only, instead of just the one phase change, there are many. Unfortunately, this is the best I can find for a phase diagram. In thermo, my prof put up a much nicer one, just trust, the phase diagram is pretty crazy looking.
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
I've always known dilatants as Newtonian Solids (for instance, cornstarch mixed with water, which you can sink your hand into, but which can also withstand the force of a sledgehammer [as can your hand if it's submersed at the time]).
... you have to mix the non-newtonian fluid pretty accurately - too thin and it won't support you, too thick and it's trivial... you'll notice they have a stirrer of some sort in the pool video - this is important - this stuff can settle in short time so you end up with mostly water above and mostly cornstarch below. Jearl Walker once lept over tables into a feed trough full of this stufff on his show. He didn't splash a drop. He did, however lose his balance, and tipped the whole thing which slowly flowed into the audience...
And they mention conrflour - I'd stick with cornstarch. One time going France and Hungary to teach science, I figured I'd forego the big containers of white powder on the international flights... and getting to Nice, I found that you can only buy boxes of cornflour, not boxes of cornstarch in French grocery stores. You could get sugar-packet sized envelopes of it, which were labeled in French with something I could not read but I imagine said "You are in France. We are famous of our sauces. If you need cornstarch to make a sauce, then go away!."
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Well, except for the fact that corn was no known in the old world at the time of JC's walkabouts.
That's why it's a miracle.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Hey! Who moved the submit button? And what are all these ponies doing here?
... and then they built the supercollider.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I can't tell if your post is hyperbole or not.
This is Slashdot. He was probably being completely serious.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Yeah, but water is one of the few (only?) materials whose liquid is denser than its solid and, as a result, freezes from the top down, rather than the bottom up. That's pretty strange, in my book.
It also has one of the highest specific heats of any material. (Highest of any common material.)
Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
It's not quite that magical. A two inch layer of aerogel will keep things about as insulated as a really good vacuum thermos, however.
I know, I work with the stuff on a regular basis, we use it as insulation, by the 400 liter barrel. See some of my pics of some of the solid slabs I have in the office.