Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on April 24, 2011 at 7:12pm

There's probably some other bonding method that will work just as well.  You'd have to do stuff prefab in a special factory, but a lot of our manufacturing is done that way now.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on April 24, 2011 at 7:10pm

6 times lighter?  That means 1/6th the weight, per unit of volume, right?  That's kind of a wonky way to describe something being lighter.

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on April 29, 2011 at 6:20pm

A more visual description might be that 16 pounds of the material would replace 100 pounds of steel - for the truly impaired a graph might be necessary.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on April 29, 2011 at 7:12pm

Not necessarily.  You wouldn't replace the steel with it on the basis of weight alone.  It would depend upon whether you require the strength, hardness, or flexibility factors, in any given application.  It also depends upon how their other criteria are measured.  Is it 10 times as strong per unit of mass or per unit of volume?  This article uses the English language in a very sloppy, unspecific manner.

Permalink Reply by oracle on April 24, 2011 at 10:43pm

The future is looking brighter with technological improvements like this. This new material will immense applications.. i wonder if they could outfit a submarine with it for even deeper sea diving.

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on April 25, 2011 at 6:43am

I'll bet they could and a lot of other apps too.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on April 25, 2011 at 11:21am

One of the key components here is the 'cheap' part.  We have a lot of amazingly useful materials, but most of them cost too much for them to be usable in large construction projects.

Permalink Reply by Cascadian Rationalist on April 27, 2011 at 6:35pm

I can't help but to think of making gigantic paper airplanes out of this stuff.

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on April 27, 2011 at 9:36pm

Actually you could build some strong, light weight ultralights and hang gliders - I guess they would be paper airplanes.

Permalink Reply by Cascadian Rationalist on April 27, 2011 at 9:40pm

I'm so buying one if/when they're developed.

How about building lift rockets to space? A lot less weight there obviously, so less fuel and cheaper flights.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on April 27, 2011 at 11:08pm

Yup, this is the sort of thing to make space colonization more viable.  The one hitch is that a lot of the mass of the ship going into space is the fuel needed to lift the weight of the fuel.  It makes for a bit of an exponential cost.  Lighter, more weight-efficient fuels will make a greater impact, I think.

 

But, well, you DO gain a lot by shaving off fractions of 1%, in this sort of thing.

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on April 28, 2011 at 8:39pm

It would , however, be the perfect material for building habitats in orbit. I wonder what kind of radiation protection it would provide and would it substitute for the reentry heat shield – which is a huge cost and not all that reliable.

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