Researchers produce strong, transparent carbon nanotube sheets (big advance)

University of Texas at Dallas , physorg.com ^ | 18 Aug 05 | staff

[the anti-liberal]

I've been keeping my eye on the development of carbon nanotubes for the past several years, my interest and concern is, when the process is fixed, how long will it take for the cost of production to come down to a point where investment and use become affordable in a practical and meaningful way? Five years, ten, twenty?

The potential applications are overwhelming- cars, airplanes, buildings, spacecraft, artificial landmasses at sea...

[Terabitten]

Body armor would probably render bullets obsolete. Best thing you could do with a machine gun is literally beat somebody to death with it. The impact of the round would still knock somebody over like a punch, but the bullet wouldn't go through.

Nope, just have to make bullets go faster and hit harder - think pistol-sized nanotube sabot rounds.

[Terabitten]

Consider: when Kevlar stops a handgun round, it pretty much debilitates the wearer. He's not in the fight anymore. And we're talking about handgun rounds that probly don't exceed 1200 feet per second.

So how was it that Richard Davis, president of Second Chance body armor, would shoot himself in the chest while wearing his body armor, as part of his sales pitch?

Wouldn't get too many sales if he ended up gasping on the floor and needing medical attention afterwards.

[Brett66]

Wow! I wonder if this is the breakthrough they needed for the space elevator, sounds like it.

[Romish_Papist]

See, this shows where we diverge with Sci-Fi, lol. The first thing I thought of was Transparisteel from Star Wars. Trek always annoyed me to no end. :)

[JamesP81]

Wouldn't get too many sales if he ended up gasping on the floor and needing medical attention afterwards.

What kind of firearm? Were the bullets standard factory issue, or were they toned down for the demonstration? (which, if they were, I'm sure no one would mention that. It'd kinda ruin the sales pitch) Given what you're saying, I seriously doubt standard manufacture ammunition was used. You can't take a .45 to the kevlar vest at short range and remain on your feet. It's not physically possible. The force of impact alone would be sufficient to knock you down, not counting any damage the impact would do to you.

[JamesP81]

So how was it that Richard Davis, president of Second Chance body armor, would shoot himself in the chest while wearing his body armor, as part of his sales pitch?

Ballistic info on a common pistol round, the .45 ACP

Standard .45 ACP ammo has around 400 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. That's enough to move a four hundred pound object a foot. So if the guy weighs 175 pounds, he's going to get blown backwards at least 2.2 feet. I don't know about you, but that would knock most people cleanly to the ground with no fuss. His demonstration is either rigged, or he is an unnaturally strong or large person. I'd betting more that his demonstration is rigged.

[KevinDavis]

When there is commercial applications for Carbon Nanotubse what would happen to the steel industry???

[the anti-liberal]

I wouldn't worry about it, maturity for the nanotube industry is a long way off, in any case, seems to me the steel industry (and nearly every other industry in the US) is already going down for the count. Personally, I'm not completely certain what we produce anymore.

[edsheppa]

Wrong kind of pound. You are better off thinking in terms of momentumn - lots of the energy of the bullet will go into deforming the bullet and vest.

Momentum-wise, looks like such a bullet would impart a velocity of ~6cm/s to a 175 lb guy. I'd guess it'd look like no more than a slight backward stumble if the guy were prapared for it.

If he holds the gun himself, it'd cancel of course.

[JamesP81]

Wrong kind of pound. You are better off thinking in terms of momentumn - lots of the energy of the bullet will go into deforming the bullet and vest.

Apparently not:

Last post indicates that people wearing kevlar when they get shot generally end up with broken ribs.

In other words, if this fellow did his demo and didn't end up with broken ribs and sever bruises, then the demonstration was rigged.

[from occupied ga]

Again, there is nothing in the article that suggests that carbon nanotubes have good ballistic properties

I don't disagree with that. It's the hydrostatic shock stuff that's wrong, and BTW class IV armor WILL stop even .308 AP rounds. Yes there is bruising on some of the lighter vests when they stop a round, but that just proves my point, because the hydrostatic shock is the same plus or minus the vest (same momentum same energy that the target has to absorb.)

[edsheppa]

Well, that's pretty authoratative all right.

But pardon my sarcasm. For all I know, you may be right about the injuries. The point of my post was that your analysis of the physics was completely wrong. For example, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to claim that "400 foot pounds of energy" is "enough to move a four hundred pound object a foot."

[q_an_a]

yes the Feds - lead by Newt and Dick Armey, as cost cutters, closed it in a 93 vote with funds ending in 95. I have the following portion of a news story - "the House of Representatives by a vote of nearly 2 to 1 has rejected the conference bill" ( which authorized it to continue ) People ran around slapping each other on the back about cutting spending - short sighted to say the least. What if they had cut off the funds for Internet research. We would still be listening to Dan Rather. I not for stupid spending on why ducks walk funny, but the science of energy and information is so different. (too long rant off)

[q_an_a]

The House of Representatives by a vote of nearly 2 to 1 has rejected the conference bill...640 million for super collider.

Yes it happened in 93, but it happened because the cost cutting Republicans made an issue of spending and treated science like it was a farm payment or mohair subsidy.

[KevinDavis]

That was so wrong... All they did was transfer the money elsewhere...

[Young Werther]

If the nanotubes can be woven into solar sails then they should be given to Scaled Composites to produce the CEV the Shuttle replacement. It would be lightweight and STRONG.

Burt Rutan and fellow space conquerors will lead us "To Infinity and Beyond!"

[FierceDraka]

I've also read there are serious health issues associated with the production of these nanotubes.

I've heard that, too. But what I read was about buckeyballs, not the tube configuration.

[FierceDraka]

Yeah, they might have discovered the Higgs Boson. Just think of the commercial implications!

Indeed! Effective manipulation of the Higgs field would revolutionize - well, everything. Reduction of inertia (through reduction of resting mass) would allow us to save TRILLIONS in fuel costs.

[Lauretij2]

Ah.. Makes some sense.

I remember George Will that weekend on ABC saying how it was a horrific mistake.

I thought it was after Republicans got control. Should've known better, thanks.