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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
kenobi-wan-obi CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
How Big Would a Coin Made of $1 Trillion Worth of Platinum Be?
Of course this isn’t what is being considered, but what if the U.S. Treasury minted a coin from $1 trillion worth of platinum?
Based on the fact that platinum is worth $1,593 per troy ounce (a troy ounce is roughly equal to 31 grams), such a coin would weigh 42,778,918 pounds — the equivalent of nearly seven Saturn V rockets — and occupy 31,947 cubic feet.
What would this coin look like?
If it had the same proportions as the U.S. dollar coin, we calculated it would be roughly 80 feet wide and 6 feet thick. Though not a very practical coin, it would have the benefit of being really difficult to steal. And you could see it from space.
But commodity money disappeared a long time ago, so let’s say the government decides to mint an actual trillion-dollar coin, and makes it out of pure platinum at the same size as the U.S. silver dollar; though the coin would be worth $1 trillion, the platinum itself would only be worth a bit more than $1,200.
Image: Alchemist-hp/Wikimedia commons
kenobi-wan-obi
Ordinary Plastic Makes Metal Objects Invisible
A metal object can be made invisible with the help of ordinary plastic, Pekka Alitalo and Constantinos Valagiannopoulos, researchers from the School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto Univ., have shown in their study.
The object, however, does not become invisible to the human eye – only to electromagnetic radiation at microwave frequencies. In practical terms, this means that electromagnetic waves traveling, for example, between two antennas, do not detect an object located in their path, allowing the waves to travel the distance between them despite the obstacle, without any disruption to communications.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/ordinary-plastic-makes-metal-objects-invisible
Gallium is a chemical element that has the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Elemental gallium does not occur in nature, but as the gallium(III) salt in trace amounts in bauxite and zinc ores. A soft silvery metallic poor metal, elemental gallium is a brittle solid at low temperatures. As it liquefies slightly above room temperature, it will melt in the hand. Its melting point is used as a temperature reference point, and from its discovery in 1875 to the semiconductor era, its primary uses were in high-temperature thermometric applications and in preparation of metal alloys with unusual properties of stability, or ease of melting; some being liquid at room temperature or below. The alloy Galinstan (68.5% Ga, 21.5% In, 10% Sn) has a melting point of about −19 °C (−2 °F).
crownedrose
Scientist creates lifelike cells out of metal
Researcher says he has created living cells made of metal instead of carbon — and they may be evolving.
Alkali metals are soft metals that can be cut with a knife. The air makes the metal corrode- so sometimes they are kept under oil to stop them from corroding. Their chemical reactions with water can be violent. [Cessium blows up a bowl in an instant].
