Boeing Says It's Made the Lightest Metal Material in the World

a reply to: 727Sky

This clip shows that it can hold 160,000 times it's own weight. Though, it doesn't weight very much, it seems to be able to hold quite some poundage. Still many, many, many times stronger than steel. I think steel holds a couple of thousand times it's own weight. This material is up in the hundred + thousand.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
a reply to: 727Sky

This clip shows that it can hold 160,000 times it's own weight. Though, it doesn't weight very much, it seems to be able to hold quite some poundage. Still many, many, many times stronger than steel. I think steel holds a couple of thousand times it's own weight. This material is up in the hundred + thousand.

Thanks for the reply and info; now we are getting somewhere !

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: StallionDuck

Hmmm, I wonder where they got the idea on how to manufacture such "thin strong metal." Maybe reverse engineering debris from the Roswell crash?

"There was a slightly curved piece of metal, real light. It was about six inches by twelve or fourteen inches. Very light. I crouched down and tried to snap it. My boss [Cavitt] laughs and said, 'Smart guy. He's trying to do what we couldn't do.' I asked, 'what in the hell is this stuff made out of?' It didn't feel like plastic and I never saw a piece of metal this thin that you couldn't break."

So your answer to any new development or invention is "aliens did it"
Why would alien technology be more realistic than it just being developed by humans?

originally posted by: WP4YT

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
I wonder if this stuff could make mechanical wings that really work for humans?

No. It's not lighter than air. It would not lower human weight, it would only slightly make you heavier.

Well they could make it lighter than air, if they made the pores small enough so that O2 and N2 molecules couldn't get in there easily. Then they would have a metal mesh with "vacuum" holes. And depending on the ratio of vacuum to metal content, it could possibly be lighter than air. One way to do this is to make the empty pores in the middle of the mesh bigger, and the pores on the surface of the mesh smaller, so outside air could never penetrate the inner core to fill up the larger vacuum spaces.

How about a full body armour?

a reply to: AMPTAH

I remember some years back where they took the "Solid Smoke" that they created, added a little electricity to it, and it became lighter than air. It floated. Though, the one draw back to that particular invention was that, even though it could withstand the heat of the sun (lol) and stronger than any substance, it could not hold up against water. When it met with water, it deteriorated. Still pretty interesting.

It makes me wonder, if you add electricity to this stuff, would it float?

originally posted by: radarloveguy

originally posted by: Rosinitiate

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
I wonder if this stuff could make mechanical wings that really work for humans?

Yeah? I wonder if it can make hovering, quiet, rotating discs.

For 2 cents , apparently steel undergoes another seven processes ,
all as complicated as the initial one we 'know' about.
The end product is super thin , light and has memory.
This involves exotic alloys and when complete ,the moulded pieces
are gaffer taped together , then energised , resulting in a weld/fastener free
'object' that is almost indestructable.

.... just saying

Magnesium, Vanadium, Palladium and Molybdenum Alloy using multilayer layered hexagonal Lattice filled with hydrophobic
Silicon aerogel. Surface coated with ultra high molecular weight polyethylene and another
Layer of yttruim copper garnet superconducting
Ceramic to form a diaeletric layer to allow formation of a coronal sheath to push away the atmosphere for high mach flight.... ;-) :-)

Bada bada booooom!

a reply to: StallionDuck

Nice. This why I dont worry about the west losing its edge. Others build things, we reinvent the tools.

The possibilities for this are far reaching into other technologies.

a reply to: WP4YT

Lolololol. Nice. Love the common sense.

Man, people really ran with this idea. It's probably useless tbh.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
a reply to: AMPTAH

I remember some years back where they took the "Solid Smoke" that they created, added a little electricity to it, and it became lighter than air. It floated. Though, the one draw back to that particular invention was that, even though it could withstand the heat of the sun (lol) and stronger than any substance, it could not hold up against water. When it met with water, it deteriorated. Still pretty interesting.

It makes me wonder, if you add electricity to this stuff, would it float?

I wonder if you could have magnets embedded in the stuff and make it form all kinds of cool shapes.
Another idea is to embed memory metal in it so it can change into the shape we want it to.

I think this could be great full body armor it may enhance the survivability of war fighters.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
a reply to: 727Sky

This clip shows that it can hold 160,000 times it's own weight. Though, it doesn't weight very much, it seems to be able to hold quite some poundage. Still many, many, many times stronger than steel. I think steel holds a couple of thousand times it's own weight. This material is up in the hundred + thousand.

news.mit.edu...

“We found that for a material as light and sparse as aerogel [a kind of glass foam], we see a mechanical stiffness that’s comparable to that of solid rubber, and 400 times stronger than a counterpart of similar density. Such samples can easily withstand a load of more than 160,000 times their own weight,”

So solid rubber is stronger than steel now? Okay...

a reply to: Aleister

Or make a Human sized sphere out of it and people can launch themselves off of skyscrapers for fun...a whole new sport!

(Idea copyright fleetway publishing / 2000 AD magazine 1988: 'Judge Dredd: Boing storyline)

originally posted by: moebius
So solid rubber is stronger than steel now? Okay...

It's an engineering thing, you wouldn't understand.

First off, stiffness isn't strength. So if they say it has a stiffness greater than rubber, they're talking about flex per unit of bending force.

Load bearing is another metric totally. It isn't stiffness. So when they're talking about withstanding loads, they're not talking stiffness.

More, when they are talking about load bearing ability, they are going to be talking about that in terms of load bearing per weight of material. You see this where they're talking about "times its own weight". Weight for weight, this stuff IS stronger than steel. But not volume for volume, because steel is a lot more dense.

So you have to actually sort of understand what they're saying to make sense of it.

This stuff should be fabric for everyones clothes! I mean super clothes!

Yes, I read about this some time ago. This microlattice material sounds great.