Questions tagged [metals]
For questions about the abundance, usage, etc. of metals.
103
questions
6
votes
1answer
305 views
Could lakes of mercury exist on an Earth-like planet?
I am working on a planet that has insignificant (almost 0 degrees) tilt, no moon, rotates twice as fast as Earth.
I intend to create quite an exotic "biome", so to speak, in a subtropical desert zone ...
6
votes
4answers
323 views
Why might metals become unavailable on earth?
Is there a plausible reason that the world might not be able to get any sort of metal from Earth, short of what we already have? I was thinking it could begin in our sort of "modern" day and age, but ...
6
votes
3answers
323 views
How could an artificial limb function “logically” for a fantasy world?
My world is almost like a fantasy steam/solar-punk set up and my main character has a metal left limb. I guess I shouldn't try to worry too much, but it always bothers me that I'm not sure if I have ...
6
votes
3answers
308 views
How strong would a person need to be to cut cleanly through steel plate?
The problem is that I would like to know how strong the creature I have in mind will end up being and if that would be too strong. I know that 15th century plate armor was very good against slashing ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
What Limitations or Modifications Would Medieval Armor or Weapons Have if Modern Quality Steel Were Used?
SETTING
The setting is a fantasy world with magic, mystical creatures, knights and heroes, kingdoms, etc; a rather typical fantasy world (ie. Middle Earth, or Shannara Chronicles). In it, swords, ...
5
votes
7answers
400 views
Feasibility of extraterrestrial metals?
In a sci-fi universe where man has the capability to leave our solar system would metals or alloys above and beyond our own be possible? Or at least within the bounds of reasonable possibility? As the ...
5
votes
4answers
568 views
What is the highest quality method to produce steel with late medieval technology?
Assuming we have the tools and materials of the late medieval period in Europe (~ 15th century) but are allowed to use modern knowledge of metallurgy, what method/process of steel production would ...
5
votes
2answers
162 views
How to increase the availability and quantity of Mercury on an Earth-like planet?
According to this list mercury only makes up 6.7×10-6 % of the Earth's crust (by mass, I believe; though even if it's by number of atoms it's still tiny).
I'd like to make mercury sufficiently ...
5
votes
2answers
326 views
Heavy metal planets in a globular cluster
Globular clusters are old, dense groups of stars that tend to have relatively few metals (in this case meaning any elements heavier than helium). Clusters near the galactic core tend to have more ...
5
votes
1answer
183 views
Could genetic engineering enable humans to make use of titanium or some similar material instead of calcium for bone formation?
I'm planing to create "super powers" born out of genetic engineering, but I don't want magic miracle stuff like an x-man, I'm looking for a realistic approach, so overall can you modify the materials ...
5
votes
2answers
684 views
Could “living” metal be plausible in a sci-fi setting?
In the space opera concept story I'm working on, the underdog faction develops/discovers several technologies and resources that help them turn the tide against the enemy. One of these discoveries is ...
5
votes
1answer
364 views
Iron based life
Lately I have been thinking about possible forms of life on planets that would have radically different experiences than here on Earth. I was wondering if life based on transition metals was possible ...
5
votes
1answer
804 views
How Does Steel React to Ice?
In this alternate scenario, for six to ten years, latitudes as far down south as Chicago experience eight to nine months where the daily high barely reaches zero Fahrenheit (−18 degrees Celsius)....
4
votes
6answers
2k views
Can Gold Be Used for Other Purposes?
One of the rarest but still most famous mineral on Earth's surface is gold. It has been used for luxury--Tut's funeral mask and the crown of Montezuma come into mind--and currency for thousands of ...
4
votes
6answers
2k views
metal clothes: can we make them with modern tech?
In a world deprived of organics but rich in metals, can we use them to make clothes?
I am not interested in the weight since this world is low g anyway, so heavy clothes are still ok; thermal ...
4
votes
4answers
648 views
Could a society attain 1800s technology if limited to using copper and bronze?
Background:
In an alternate history of the island that became modern Britain, prehistoric humans entered the Bronze Age but then (for various religious reasons - the full details of which are ...
4
votes
1answer
561 views
How much metal could a humanoid safely have in its skin and bones and be functional?
Question definitions:
"safely" - the metal would be strictly beneficial; there would be no health problems caused by it (perhaps at least for most, there may be "birth defects" which cause some of ...
3
votes
5answers
445 views
Forging metal under water, using thermite
I have a world setting that contains a variety of underwater species, some crustacean, some cephalopodic, and other varieties. Different species are adapted to different depths, and a few are ...
3
votes
3answers
802 views
Could a medieval / early modern blast furnace produce steel alloys
Blast furnaces have been in China since the 1st century, and arrived in the west during the late 1400's. Imagine now a society "stuck" in the early modern / late medieval period, could they produce ...
3
votes
3answers
540 views
What alloys and metals can fantasy dwarves refine/create? [closed]
What metals are dwarves capable of refining and producing?
I'm working on a setting where the players have a lot of meta knowledge (Computers and nukes in a pre-industrial world anyone?¹) and need to ...
3
votes
2answers
414 views
How could ancient metalworkers use modern metals? [closed]
These days, we use many different metals and alloys that weren't available in the ancient world (stainless steel, titanium, nickel, etc.).
If a vast collection of modern metal objects were somehow ...
3
votes
2answers
201 views
Making iron tools from blood [closed]
So, I read a while ago several threads about making iron objects/blades from blood. In my conworld there are giant predators that would, according to my calculations, have enough blood so that 12 of ...
3
votes
3answers
339 views
Could a person replace half of their body with gold and still live? What technology would be needed in order to be successful?
My character is male and eighteen years of age. He has no health issues.
'Gold' can be replaced with any type of metal - silver, bronze, steel, iron, it doesn't really matter to me. The ideal type ...
3
votes
1answer
238 views
What If We Had More Iron?
Back home, 84% of Earth's core is iron, one of the most abundant elements in the cosmos. We have used it for many purposes in the 6,000 years of human history, from the heads of arrows and spears to ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
Is there a metal, that is not sticky during freezing weather [closed]
Is there any metal, that your tongue will not stick during winter?
If there are several, please list all metals with such property, that you can remember.
2
votes
2answers
122 views
Using liquid/malleable metal as a shield/weapon?
Maybe this question doesn't go too far, but when reading about liquid metal type materials like those that can harden with electricity or magnetism, I was kind of thinking of something there. For ...
2
votes
2answers
423 views
What are the limitations of silver?
In this world, a bunch of wizards colonized a new planet and are in the process of terraforming it (more details here).
This newly-created civilization has access to a reduced variety of materials. ...
2
votes
1answer
159 views
could different bloods of the same metal type mix?
Other blood colors
The link about talks about other color's of blood that could be if made with either different metals or different oxygen carrier's. What I want to know is if you mixed iron blood ...
2
votes
1answer
164 views
Sudden enrichment of heavier elements and its impact to medieval/renaissance society
Disclaimer
Building from this question, and both of this answer by John_H, and this by Samuel, I'm going to compose a new question quite related yet not quite similar.
Background
So we have a world ...
1
vote
11answers
681 views
Biological processes to convert metal into not-metal?
In my story, I'm trying to create a natural disaster of sorts that severely limits the amount of metal used in society.
Are there any processes that would be biologically compatible that irreversibly ...
1
vote
4answers
234 views
Could a Skyscraper's Skeleton Be Stainless? [closed]
The official definition of "stainless steel" is a steel alloy where 10.5% consists of chromium, allowing it to withstand corrosion a lot better than carbon steel. With this sort of advantage, you'd ...
1
vote
3answers
230 views
Realistic size for an atomic pure space body
Space bodies like planets, asteroids and comets are formed by the remaining materials of stars explosions. Therefore they are usually made up of several elements.
There is the possibility that a ...
1
vote
3answers
206 views
Is it possible to braid a hat with pure gold and it still be usable? [closed]
So here's the background: there's an adventurer who is looking for a golden hat made by an extraterrestrial civilization as a gift for one of his ancestor in the 18th century.
Is it technically ...
1
vote
3answers
213 views
Must Make a Major Modification of Medieval Metallurgy
The scene: Earth, but with a single major modification, the addition of a HUGE quantity of a single element to the Earth's crust (bringing it up to the same abundance as Iron in the crust).
The ...
1
vote
2answers
224 views
Can a new volcano have metals inside?
If I were to use handwavium to raise a volcano in the middle of the sea, would it contain metals or ores large enough to be extracted by normal means, like mining with a pickaxe?
Everything apart ...
1
vote
2answers
172 views
A Different Alloy--For Better or Worse?
Related to this: Any Better Alternatives to Steel?
I have found that any alternatives to steel are not so easy to obtain or practice. Aluminum is lighter than steel, but it's not as strong and more ...
1
vote
2answers
2k views
Gold as a conductor for spiritual energy
Trying to develop a consistent system for my world based on the idea of the substance, Gold, being a special material that can conduct spiritual energy in a way similar to how metal already conducts ...
1
vote
2answers
204 views
Is it possible to make alloys/composite materials with Gold and glasses such as Obsidian [duplicate]
I'm limited to having either iron, tungsten, titanium, and gold be alloyed and/or made into a composite material with obsidian to make an obsidian-like material with a gold sheen that can be shaped ...
0
votes
3answers
205 views
Iron practically everywhere
My Kepler Bb people live in a part of their planet saturated with iron. But not in the metal form. Rather in an oxidized form called an ore. Every time they dig a chamber, each person finds at least 1 ...
0
votes
2answers
110 views
Would the early invention of the microscope naturally lead to better metallurgy or steel?
QUESTION
It's been established that one could invent microscopes early with a magnification of up to 1500x.
It occurred to me, though I really know nothing about this, that putting metals under a ...
0
votes
2answers
95 views
Would it be possible to make an alloy of metal and amorphous solid?
I would like to know if there'd be any way to forge a metal with an amorphous natural glass such as opal or obsidian into an alloy. Could such a thing be crafted into tools? Would it be conchoidal ...
0
votes
1answer
99 views
Could Carbon Nanotubes Even Be Used for Metalwork?
Last time, I had asked if the science of carbon nanotubes would be realized at an earlier date than in our timeline.
It seems that there were plans to insert carbon nanotubes into concrete, enhancing ...
0
votes
3answers
122 views
Modelling platinum supply
Given an asteroid mining company manages to deliver platinum (ore) to Earth, how would they need to set their selling price to account for delivery, given that today on Earth 1g platinum costs $30 to ...
0
votes
2answers
79 views
Which properties would alloys that becomes increasingly reflective as they heat up have? [closed]
One of the things I'm working on for my science fiction setting are reasons for laser weapons to not be very prominent.
One of the ideas I came up with was for the primary hull plating of most ships ...
-1
votes
1answer
145 views
How to make shape-shifting robotic creatures? [closed]
BORN4 / Con-Science Saga
Is this story scientifically possible and/or plausible by our real-world standards?
What should I change about it, if the science behind it is not really understandable?
...
-1
votes
2answers
291 views
Are bones generally harder to corrode than human skin? [closed]
I am curious to know if bones generally are harder to corrode than human skin in our world and at what rate?
I was thinking to compare how a skeleton would react to corrosion compared to a regular ...
-1
votes
1answer
132 views
What would the implications be if all terrestrial lead was gold? [closed]
At some point before life crawled out of the ocean, some alien alchemist managed to turn all of the lead on the earth into gold. Galena becomes some sort of Electrum, and any existing Anglesite and ...
-2
votes
4answers
460 views
What's the heaviest and most resistant metal for an armor? [closed]
In a world where humans are physically stronger (say, they lift about 40-45k lbs), and probably gravity is 0.6 from Earth's, what is the best metal to make an armor from?
-2
votes
4answers
5k views
What metals have similar properties to iron and iron alloys? [closed]
I'm writing a book set in a zombie apocalypse. It has been under this apocalypse so 50 years. Iron is one of the zombies' only weaknesses. Iron mining techniques at the time of the start of the ...
-3
votes
4answers
169 views
Could the Romans have Invented Graphene? [closed]
This scenario is inspired by this article.
Long ago, it was thought that this super-cool, extra strong material called carbon nanotubes is a recent invention. After all, what ancient culture could ...
