A Futuristic Metal.......

Steve says you'll like this post!!!!!!!

By Extant Faora on August 12, 2008 1:00:02 AM from

Before I begin, I am going to shamelessly advertise a Strategy Forum post I made recently . It goes under the title of "All-Economy Strategy". If anyone is intrigued, please check it out . However as a warning, it's a long read, you might just want to skip to the Replies section .

Now to begin..............

I was being a nerd today at the beach (aren't we all ) due to the fact that the water was too damned cold. So I got onto the subject of chemistry, and started thinking about the boiling point of metals (yes I'm a NERD like that, deal with it ). Then I put an intriguing thought into my head, why isn't there a metal that solidifies when extreme heat is applied to it. Mercury is the only naturally Liquid metal at room temperature (that we have discovered). And another "NERD" might give me a flip response about how the entire atomic structure of the Universe would have to be reversed. But me being controversial, says that this is not necessarily true. So just imagine for a moment that there was just such a metal. It turns into a liquid at temperatures less than 100 degrees Celsius, and instantly solidifies when extreme heat (like that from a laser, explosion, lava, plasma, etc.) is applied.

If such a metal existed, the Defensive capacity of ships would be increased exponentially. There would bemuch less Human/Alien casualties if such a metal existed. To counter this however, all we would have to do is create some sort of "Cold" laser, explosion, plasma, etc.

So that this metal would not spill out in the vacuum of space, it would have to be surrounded on both sides by extra thick metal. A 5-10 metre thick exterior slab/plate to keep it from spilling outwards, and another 5-10 metre interior slab/plate to keep it from spilling inwards. This metal would cool off eventually (it would cool off 10 times faster in space), so it would need to be kept in sections (like honey in a honey comb) to keep it from all spilling out all at once (in which case it would make most of the ship collapse in on itself).

So I was wondering what other people thought of this idea. It would help if the community would help me come up with a name for it, some weapons that would counter it, some other benifits/liabilities that it possesses, etc.

Anticipating your responses.

ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!

+5 Karma | 22 Replies

How are we supposed to speculate on your imaginary world?

-Dr. B

How are we supposed to speculate on your imaginary world?

-Dr. B

Same way people speculate on Star Trek and Star Wars. This is just less defined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armor

Depends on what Science Fiction view of the future you're taking.

If its 40k with ridiculously huge ships that explode just as ridiculously easy, then no. (10,000 people die saving the Emperor each day. FIND A NEW GOD DAMNED EMPEROR).

Even then there are shields in just about every Science Fiction view of the future out there.

And isn't this the basics of Kevlar or something? I seem to remember some material that gets really hard when pushed/burned on or something, but I forget if they were talking about bullet proof vests or whatever.

If its 40k with ridiculously huge ships that explode just as ridiculously easy, then no. (10,000 people die saving the Emperor each day. FIND A NEW GOD DAMNED EMPEROR).

dont worry the Emperor going to die with the 5th book of 40K

Mercury is the only naturally Liquid metal at room temperature (that we have discovered).

Mercury is not the only one. Whilst only considered a poor metal, gallium does melt at about ~30C. Which means if you get a piece of solid gallium, it will melt in the palm of your hand. Which is a cool thing if you remember that its a metal

why isn't there a metal that solidifies when extreme heat is applied to it.

In solid state, a metal consists of atoms bonded to one another through electron sharing, which is also why they conduct heat and electricity. By heating them, you break the bonds, thus allowing atoms to move more freely, which results in a liquid, and if you have enough energy nearby, eventually a gas.

Having said all of that, if you tweaked the idea to make it a compound which takes the incoming energy and channels it to connect new bonds at a rate comparable or exceeding that at which they are being broken, you could get self repairing armour which would get stronger with each hit.

That is all.

Why on earth goto all the trouble of inventing a metal that gets harder the hotter it gets, it ends up getting so hard that it would shatter, further more.. even if it didnt shatter, the atoms themselves would be so close to each other and full of so much energy when hit they would destroy each other and be the same as an antimatter explosion.
Things melt for a reason.. if atoms collide bad things can happen.

Ontop of that.. explosions dont work by heat, they work by blastwaves called overpressure, and most dont work by the expanding overpressure wave they work by the induction as air rushes back to fill the vacum created.
IN space normal explosives dont work verywell, infact you could set of an explosive that would blow you apart on earth in space, and it would just scratch your back in a vaccum.

A new breed of lasers is being designed for military applications(of course that doesnt mean much as the US military expected to have infantry lasers by the 90s and didnt) But they work by fireing a beam over such a short time of such higher power that the atoms dont have time to get away from each other, bang into each other or the photons hitting them which they cant absorb because they are satuarated and fission.

Instant nuclear explosion, with a laser system which can run on an aa battery for hundreds of shots, it doesnt work by burning it works by destroying the matter.
Which doesnt require all that much energy, it just requires it all at once as in hundredth trillion billionth of a second timeframe.

Lastly when dealing with heat, why not just use a thermal superconductor, we are very close to having some, we lack the ablity to properly build things atom by atom without alot of errors in general but we are there and its just a question of time to refine atomic building untill we can create otherwise impossible materials cheaply and perfectly.

As an example, nanocarbon rings, not to be mistaken for carbon nanotubes, there ALOT stronger, some experiments have put 5mm of nanocarbon rings having the same kenetic protection as 5m of steel armor plate.
Not that it would do you any good if you were wearing it as armor and got hit by something that even half that force.. you would be paste inside the suit.. but the armor would survive.

Of course... nothing says we couldnt improve parts of the human body, such as cellwalls with Nanocarbon rings, once formed there normaly unreactive even with oxygen, and they also happen to have elasticity required for both cells and the "glue" which keeps cells together.

One word missles. They're hot at the back not the front so they'd go right through this wonderous material and detonate on the inside which means the explosion would be contained making it all the more deadly.

It's pointless to armor spaceships, even more than its pointless to arm them. Let me just do the rundown:

Name: Instant Armour (just add water)
Countering Weapons: Every heavy weapon known to man
Benefits: It sounds cool
Liabilities: It doesn't protect you from dying, and your spaceship is absurdly overweight

Okay, that was kind of fun.

-Dr. B

Unobtanium, Perhaps?

Hmmm... how can I obtain some unobtanium?

While we're at it lets make heat travel from a cold medium to a hot one.

Who needs laws of thermodynamics? I only like saying it.

I've known some people who harden when heat is applied. They do have tough defensive capabilities...

why isn't there a metal that solidifies when extreme heat is applied to it

Such a metal would only do so at very specific temperatures and pressures, and would likely be partially a semiconductor, since it would likely work using principles similar to liquid crystals. If you go well beyond the specific temperatures/pressures, it will break down and revert back to the normal behavior we associate with most metals.

and instantly solidifies when extreme heat (like that from a laser, explosion, lava, plasma, etc.) is applied.

That type of material would be impossible with our laws of physics. Under extreme conditions, it will revert back to normal behaviors.

That being said, you can create liquid that becomes solid and materials that become harder under immense pressure. I believe this is what some types of armor may already use to absorb blast waves from some types of weapons.

Unfortunately, this is not any sort of absolute protection, and everything we know of has limits.

Future defensive technologies appear to be moving towards active and reactive armor technologies - destroying, diverting, or somehow lessening the effects of the weapon before it reaches the main armor and the vehicle itself.

Mercury is the only naturally Liquid metal at room temperature (that we have discovered).

There are some alloys that are also liquid at room temperature. They may be used in the future for cooling computer components.

This is all very interesting. I'm quite impressed!!!??

?? I'm less of a nerd than most of you!!!??

?? Just joking by the way!!!??

??

But seriously this is quite nice. I learned a lot of new things.

I can see how if a metal is too solid, it breaks under all the pressure. I forgot about Gallium, how it to is liquid at a certain temperature. I also like Cobra's post, because it is slightly more in-depth. I like the philosophical approach that Bigglesworth brought to all of this. I also like the literal approach that some of you took by suggesting Reactive Armor technologies. I found DrathKar's post about NanoCarbon Rings quite interesting.

I like all the wise guys here as well. Like KitKun, Heft, Etc.

So to wrap it up, +1 Karma for all of you for giving me something to ponder about.

Rock On!!!!!??

This is certainly the most unusual thread I have seen so far on this forum

A material is not going to solidify in such a way. Solidification is the formation of interatomic bonds in order to stabilize the structures energetically, thus what you are saying is the exact opposite of this. You are suggesting input of massive amounts of energy (which has a proportionately large DESTABILZING effect without extreme pressure) resulting in spontaneous re-ordering and establishment of a MORE stable structure (you know how many atoms would have to become aligned instantaneously?) which thermodynamically is completely opposite to reality. Atoms require time and a driving force to order in such a way. Diamond and other superhard materials are not thermodynamically stable states, they revert to different forms e.g. diamond to graphite that are more stable i.e. less condensed than the hard phase because physically atoms have a restriction as to how compacted and close together they can become before repulsive effects are felt. Even room temperature is enough to start the reversion of diamond to graphite, albeit extremely slowly.

As mentioned earlier, extreme pressures and temperatures are required to produce ultrahard materials and usually this is accompaned by extreme temperatures for example the production of diamond, cubic boron nitride and the recently developed diamond compacts formed artificially by compaction of carbon nanotubes among many others. The more ordered the system, the more prone it is to the effects of entropy - our universe is a state of ever increasing entropy (disorder) thus unless you could miraculously align enormous orders of magnitudes of atoms in a nanosecond and then amazingly channel the remaining energy away (into subspace perhaps?) then this idea doesn't have a prayer of working..hehe!

And even if you could, the inclusion of impurities like space dust or a torpedo casing

would contaminate your material and mess up everything - ah entropy will be served! In other words, a pure material is virtually impossible to produce on a large scale, thus even a few stray atoms floating about could contaminate your material, disorder its crystal / packing structure and cause catastrophic failure.

Interesting idea though, but totally contrary to Materials Science

Maybe in a parallel reality...but then everything would be different anyway...lol.

I like your thinking SIAlON, you are very insightful. Your debate is extremely well backed up and to the point. Not to mention being informative. In short I loved your post. And like everyone here already did, you get +1 Karma.

ROCK ON!!!!!??

Actually such a thing as the original poster said exists and is in early testing phases, but it isn't a metal, it's a liquid compound of nano-particles that becomes rigid under shearing force (forces causing disturbances or sloshing of the liquid).

Liquid Armor

NUHICE!!!!!!

I'm gonna so check out your link, when I find some free time!!!!!!!

I think that that's enough smileys!!!

That metal does sound cool but I would prefer the ship defenses that the USS Voyager from Star Trek Voyager got from the future. Basically, at the point of battle, some type of armor made of strong material covers the entire ship. Image of voyager with armor http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/ST-VOY_7_26.jpg.

If its 40k with ridiculously huge ships that explode just as ridiculously easy, then no. (10,000 people die saving the Emperor each day. FIND A NEW GOD DAMNED EMPEROR).

Well thats not accurate, a single battleship will have about 10 000 souls on it. Across the a whole segmentum, maybe ~100 000 will die every day. Across the whole galaxy? In the millions. There are alot of humans, they number in the trillions.....

I was wondering when a Trekkie would pop up on this post.

And you know, those millions of deaths for the Emperor don't have to be limited to just humans ya know.

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A Futuristic Metal.......

Steve says you'll like this post!!!!!!!