MM I read an article on a gel that when under sudden impact would solidify fast enough that it would be used in new bullet proof vests. That and corn starch and water <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I drink orange juice by the gallon when im sick. Not sure how much it helps but its habbit now

That's a shear-thickening fluid. Very cool stuff, and exactly the kind of materials that interest me. The US ski team at a recent winter olympics actually wore a sort of body armor with patches of shear thickening fluids in them - they were very flexible, giving wide range of motion, but would harden on impact to provide protection in case of a fall. Cool <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

As i understand it glass is such a material. It acts as a solid but over long periods of time it runs like a liquid. Like on really old houses windows will be thicker at the bottem than at the top.

Wow, that it cool stuff MM. Things like that really interest me too though i dont have the education to really get into the nitty gritty of it.

Do you work at a university of some sort or a privater research firm?

Glass is indeed such a material, however the idea of windows getting thicker at the bottom is more of an urban legend. Typical window glass materials would take something like the age of the universe to flow enough to give a measurable change in thickness.

Some use the example of windows in medieval-era churches as "proof" of this idea, but it's been pretty well debunked. The thickness difference in those windows is actually due to the way they were manufactured, and not the way they were flowing.


And now you know, and knowing is half the battle. GI JOEEEEEEEEEE! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Well, learn somthing every day

so what is this shear-thickening material called in the hardened state?

Hi Guys..just wandered over here. Sounds like an interesting discussion.

MM. Once it is in a hardened state is it possible for that same material to return to a gel like state?

As i understand it its only in a hardened state under shock