New answers tagged metals
0
What you have here, is a metal with an unstable outer shell of electrons. At the slightest provocation, an electron may jump to a higher orbit, quickly lose energy, and return to its normal orbit.
These fluctuations cause the metal to emit a field, and the effect compounds: The more metal you have, the wider the field around it.
If another piece of this ...
1
You can build an effect like this by invoking a sort of augmented magnetism.
Suppose there is some force that pulls on some particles in the material, and pushes on other particles in the materials so that the net effect is that there is not overall force between the two bulks of material, but microscopically, you are getting motion of the molecules.
Now ...
4
This sounds like Newtonian gravity, but restricted to this metal ‐ and not all the matter in the universe‐ and with glowing replacing acceleration.
...doesn't glow when it's in one piece
Just like one piece of matter doesn't accelerates itself.
..its smaller pieces, which in turn glow brighter the closer they get to a larger chunk.
...
8
Electroluminescence
Short answer, the metal/alloy produces a high frequency low current EM field, and the voltage increases with more in proximity. The oxide layer produced by exposure to the atmosphere acts as an inorganic electroluminescent phosphor. The metal would be able to make other electroluminescent items glow as well.
Long answer...
...
4
Just an idea for you to build off, or anyone else with more science knowledge. - A play off magnetic material - as magnets do seem to call to each other, but not visibly.
But suppose you have a special alien space alloy, this alloy is composed with a super rare-earth magnet type material. The stronger this special magnetic field the more the components ...
0
Kinda coming off other ideas, here. What if, the material constantly outputs a high frequency wave, i.e ultra violet, And that the metal will glow when subjected to the right frequency (materials that do one or the other exist IRL.) Then, when brought near eachother, the air filtering them slightly changes the frequency, and when at the right distance, will ...
0
The material 1) needs to either contain a huge amount of energy or somehow continuously harvest energy to glow, and 2) needs to radiate and be sensitive to the same radiation to sense nearby pieces.
My idea is that the material harvests vacuum energy and turns it into microwaves. Further, if the material is externally irradiated with microwaves it produces ...
24
A Programmed Feature:
This idea is inspired by Willk's answer, though there have been other good ideas in the thread.
It's a deliberate design choice by the long ago designers of the craft. Meant to help highlight and locate damaged components - the nanites activate a phosphorescent effect whenever chunks of the ship become separated from each other.
...
3
I don't think there is a true science answer for this. Materials don't behave this way.
If this were in a large field, perhaps separated pieces would behave differently than the pieces merged. Consider metal in a microwave oven. Small pieces will spark and melt because the currents are too high. A large piece, like a metal bowl, will be fine with no ...
7
It is alive. The pieces are calling to each other.
its largest chunk begins glowing and doesn't stop glowing, sort of
like a beacon for all its smaller pieces, which in turn glow brighter
the closer they get to a larger chunk.
These things want to be together. They are distressed to be apart. They are glowing because they are calling to each other....
3
Have a look at Metamaterials
Metamaterials are manufactured materials that have properties that natural materials do not have.
Research into Metamaterials has been continuing for some time, and there are discussions that these materials would become more and more common in the near future as they approach viability, with some already in use today.
They ...
6
My answer is based on a previous answer which is about radiation. In my opinion that's exactly what you need. I thougth of Tritium which is usually used in watches to power the flourescent glow of the device. The problem is Tritium does not glow, it needs additional fluorescent material to do it, nor is it a metal.
So I come up with two ideas:
Should your ...
11
See someone has already answered with nuclear decay...
My answer is not actually based on science, so I know my answer will not be popular. This is more based on junk science and sci-fi concepts that we haven't yet mastered or even come close to.
Quantum entanglement/FTL communication is the best I've come up with, and that's more sci-fi than regular ...
3
I commissioned a sword from Canadian smith Jeff Helmes back in 2013. I got my then 6 year old to help me choose a design, and being 6, his most important consideration was its suitability for fighting monsters. So we needed something with silver, iron and a religious or holy motif.
I ended up going with a design based on a sword in the museum of Glasgow. ...
5
Bi58, with a little help.
An alloy of bismuth and tin in the proportion 58:42 known as Bi58. by itself has a melting point of 138 °C (280.4 °F), but doesn't by itself have suitable properties to act as mortar, as it needs to be able to stay where it's troweled to and although denser needs the approximate properties of a well-whipped egg-white.
The builder'...
3
Using metal as binder between non metallic part is a knowledge we humans are using for quite some time. We still use it today in Kintsugi.
In the case of Kintsugi, however, gold particles are added to the binder, instead of melting the gold itself.
What would be the requirements for such a metal to be used as binder?
non brittle, to yield when (dynamic) ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
