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Blast-Proof Fabric Resists Multiple Explosions

An anonymous reader tips a Gizmodo story on a fabric whose properties are counterintuitive, to say the least of it. "Zetix is a fabric so strong it will resist multiple car bomb blasts without breaking. It absorbs and disperses the energy from explosions... it can be used in body armor, window covering, military tents, and hurricane defenses... [and] it can be used as medical sutures that won't damage body tissue. All of this is thanks to a property that apparently defies the laws of physics: helical-auxetics, objects that actually get fatter the more you stretch them. The concept makes my head want to explode, but when you see it in action it actually makes sense."

10 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Mind the label by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

    and] it can be used as medical sutures that won't damage body tissue.

    Sutures necessary from the failure of the cloth?

    Read the label "Resists, not Proof!"
    "D'oh!"
    "At least we can use the remainder of your suit to stitch you up!"

    The concept makes my head want to explode, but when you see it in action it actually makes sense.

    You should wear a hat made of this material, if not for you, than for those around you.

    "I wear fashions from Yves St. Rongbad, in case anything around me asplode!"

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Mind the label by crakbone · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now how do we get clothes and backpacks made out of this stuff to suicide bombers?

  2. Fat pants by FalconZero · · Score: 4, Funny

    According the material on the companies web site (auxetix) one of the applications is for a fabric that changes colour as it's stretched (specifically for cargo webbing). But one application which would be much cooler (and useful for a fair portion of the slashdot crowd) is pants made out of this stuff - They'd change colour to tell you when you've eaten too many pies.

    --
    Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
    1. Re:Fat pants by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or next year's MacBooks.

      Think about who you're talking to.

  3. I'm confused. by Gigiya · · Score: 5, Funny
    From TFA:

    The fabrics can ... be deployed in containment systems, military tents, ballistic mosquito nets and body armor, a $2 billionpret-a-porter market.
    What?
  4. They decided to name it Zetix since by Provocateur · · Score: 4, Funny

    'iddqd' was unpronounceable and make it less marketable except to some Eastern Bloc countries

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  5. Re:Is there an SI-unit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Corleones?

  6. Re:Is there an SI-unit? by athakur999 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is based on the amount of reward you are promised in the afterlife for using the car bomb. A "standard" car blast has a strength of 7 dekavirgins.

    --
    "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  7. I claim prior art by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is hardly new. I've had a something that gets fatter the more you stretch it for as long as I can remember.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  8. Re:Is there an SI-unit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    More revisionist metric nonsense.

    The "standard" car blast is called the akar. One akar is equal to six fekar, and one fekar is equal to twelve virgins. These are long standing traditional measures which are much more natural when planning real attacks, by the way... some of us actually do stuff instead of just talking about it. By all rights, even when using your annoying metric system, a "standard" car blast would be 7.2 of your dekavirgins. However the Car Bomb Unit Naming Institute is overrun by weak-willed idiots who have never blown themselves up to smite their enemy in their lives, and have chosen to spit on the face of this holy tradition by rounding the number to a more "convenient" value. As if any of these guys has ever worn an explosive belt or carried a dead-man's switch. It makes me sick, I tell you.