Blast-Proof Fabric Resists Multiple Explosions 250
An anonymous reader tips a Gizmodo story on a fabric whose properties are counterintuitive, to say the least of it. "Zetix is a fabric so strong it will resist multiple car bomb blasts without breaking. It absorbs and disperses the energy from explosions... it can be used in body armor, window covering, military tents, and hurricane defenses... [and] it can be used as medical sutures that won't damage body tissue. All of this is thanks to a property that apparently defies the laws of physics: helical-auxetics, objects that actually get fatter the more you stretch them. The concept makes my head want to explode, but when you see it in action it actually makes sense."
Mind the label (Score:5, Funny)
Sutures necessary from the failure of the cloth?
Read the label "Resists, not Proof!"
"D'oh!"
"At least we can use the remainder of your suit to stitch you up!"
You should wear a hat made of this material, if not for you, than for those around you.
"I wear fashions from Yves St. Rongbad, in case anything around me asplode!"
Re:Mind the label (Score:4, Funny)
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Tighty whities? My first thought when I saw this was: "Countdown to helical-auxetic penis enlargement spam 10... 9..."
I claim prior art (Score:5, Funny)
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Maybe that's why all women are a size "6".
Layne
Re:Mind the label (Score:4, Funny)
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I couldn't help but think of Jagi, from Fist of the North Star. He's the bad guy who Kenshiro hit with his Your-Head-Asplode punch, and he had to wear a metal harness bolted to his head to contain the pressure even years later. I bet this would be a boon for him!
No miracles, no defying the laws of physics (Score:3, Insightful)
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It doesn't matter how many people die of unnatural causes, you'll always be able to claim that.
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Correction.. (Score:2)
Why just go halfway?
Re:No miracles, no defying the laws of physics (Score:4, Interesting)
Good news for pirates, then!
More seriously, I think it will work for bullets, since bullets burst fabrics by stretching them to the point of failure (and bullet-proof fabrics like Kevlar work by having a high tensile strength). The only question becomes how far does the bullet have to stretch the fabric until the strength rises enough to stop it? More than a couple of inches, and the bullet is into your internal organs anyway, so you have to reduce the looseness and flexibility of the fabric to prevent that from happening. The most obvious way to do that is the same way you do it for conventional bullet-proof vests: by adding hard plates or other rigid materials into the vest. The difference here is you might be able to use light materials that are themselves not bullet-proof (eg. wood, foam). The bullet could puncture these materials easily, but in dragging the material into the resulting bullet hole, the stretch factor would rise very rapidly and the fabric would suddenly become very strong.
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Re:No miracles, no defying the laws of physics (Score:4, Funny)
*Raises Hand*
Channel 101 (Score:2)
Fat pants (Score:5, Funny)
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At last! We could find who has eaten all the pies .. the fat bastard.
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Imagine eating so many pies you look like him! [chubbybrown.biz]
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Re:Fat pants (Score:5, Funny)
Or next year's MacBooks.
Think about who you're talking to.
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This has been a public service announcement.
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Also: Informative? I thought it was basic knowledge!
Silly putty (Score:2)
Luckily.. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm confused. (Score:5, Funny)
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It's just the countermeasure against the Ballistic Mosquito Gun 3000...
...nothing to see here, move along!
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I feel generous today so I googled it for you:
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They are about the size of a 747, and you can clearly see their tail numbers. Well, almost.
(Aedes aegypti) [wikipedia.org]
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I think Roy Spire would suggest this caution is justified [homedns.org].
Re:I'm confused. (Score:4, Funny)
What's so confusing about that?
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They decided to name it Zetix since (Score:4, Funny)
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won't protect the contents (Score:2)
The best thing to do with it would be to make bags that you can use to contain an explosive device rather than try to protect people with it.
Afterthought: if it's s
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Hopefully bullets and shrapnel, being fast moving, won't.
Re:won't protect the contents (Score:4, Insightful)
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Garbage (Score:4, Insightful)
These kind of statements are so frustrating to me...
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Yes, this phrase is almost always used when the writer actually means that a result "defies my intuition about the physical world" which is not the same as "defies the laws of physics." If our physical intuition always matched the actual behavior of the universe, then it would not have taken us hundreds of years to figure out the things we now know.
Observations which do not match up with our best understanding of the universe do happen (and are how we improve science), but they are not nearly as freque
Brand name "Mithril" (Score:3, Funny)
if this were a towel (Score:3, Funny)
This will not stop all damage however (Score:2, Interesting)
As an example, there are current studies on the link between multiple concussive explosion attacks on soldiers - a higher proportion of US soldiers in Iraq may in fact develop Parkinsonian diseases as a result of multiple exposures to blasts from car bombs and other similar attacks.
So, this will help with shrapnel and some damage, but will not solve the total risk factor.
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If we're wrong, it could be good news for organ banks. Still doesn't do much for the head and neck I imagine.
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Habla usted Taco Bell (Score:2)
Video of Auxetic material (Score:5, Informative)
Wow - a refreshing reminder (Score:2)
Chinese Finger Traps? (Score:2, Interesting)
Looking forward to civilian applications of this.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Looking forward to civilian applications of thi (Score:4, Funny)
"Defies the laws of physics" (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing can defy the laws of physics - because physics describes how things work.
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Now you're trying to defy logic.
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Wow. Perhaps now the Mormons can make (Score:2)
This would make a great tank cozy (Score:2)
how fucking cheap is our government? (Score:2)
This is dangerous. It's like playing russian roulette with someone's life.
Great that it withstands multiple explosions, but people don't. How many explosions are you expecting to be in?
Isn't withstanding one explosion good enough? After the first one, should you really be in a position to get blown up again?
Empty Benefit (Score:2)
Unfortunately the hydraulic shock from the blast, entering primarily through places that can't be covered so you can breathe, will make the wearer into a "hairy bag of strawberry ice cream" (Catch 22). But at least the armor will be intact for the next poor sod to pick it up and put it on.
sometime in the 24th century (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is there an SI-unit? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Is there an SI-unit? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is there an SI-unit? (Score:5, Funny)
The "standard" car blast is called the akar. One akar is equal to six fekar, and one fekar is equal to twelve virgins. These are long standing traditional measures which are much more natural when planning real attacks, by the way... some of us actually do stuff instead of just talking about it. By all rights, even when using your annoying metric system, a "standard" car blast would be 7.2 of your dekavirgins. However the Car Bomb Unit Naming Institute is overrun by weak-willed idiots who have never blown themselves up to smite their enemy in their lives, and have chosen to spit on the face of this holy tradition by rounding the number to a more "convenient" value. As if any of these guys has ever worn an explosive belt or carried a dead-man's switch. It makes me sick, I tell you.
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Re:Energy dissipation (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry, wrong link.. (Score:4, Funny)
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I like the idea of hospital tents and such being made of this stuff though. It's the perfect application, assuming the frame doesn't warp and collapse under the pressure of flexing fabrics.
Re:Energy dissipation (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally though, I'd rather see something like this used in car parts (bumpers, convertible roofs, tires, etc).
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I'm guessing that it's by gas flow between the threads. Stretching the material opens gaps uniformly over the stretched area, the bigger the pressure the wider the gaps are. Other fabrics do not open like that, or at least not as uniformly, so they tear when the pressure builds up.
Re:Energy dissipation (Score:5, Informative)
Armor is not just a single layer of stuff, it is multiple layers. Yes, this stuff by itself is not worth much as armor, but layer it on top of other thigns, and you got something special.
Each layer stops something else. This layer does not break, so it stops penetration. Make a cell structure of this, fill it with something else, like say SAND, and that pressure wave you were so worried about becomes contained. Two layers of a cell structure like this, with sand in between them, and the entire explosive kinetic energy is contained, converted to heat, deflect out, or otherwise dealt with.
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Yes, that is exactly what explosions need more of, heat. Surely that will help protect us more. So rather than being filled with holes, we can be cooked instead.
Yes yes, I know insulate the thing... I am just being a jerk.
Though like any armour, protection at the cost of mobility, and what ratio are you realistically looking at to be effective.
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You're still toast if a train hits you, but I imagine your survivability from lesser impacts goes way up.
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Re:Energy dissipation (Score:4, Informative)
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How about:
1) outer layer of kelvar netting (prevent punctures, cuts, etc.)
2) second layer of "this stuff"
3) third layer of foam
4) fourth layer of ?? canvas? kelvar?
5) fifth layer of spacers. dead air, mainly, with just enough stuff the loft the other layers.
5.5) Possibly need a layer to spread the impression of the pillars of the spacer stuff, but probably not. (Just make the smaller and more frequent.)
6) inner laye
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Force times distance is WORK, not energy. Can you explain the energy of a photon in terms of "force times distance?" Nope.
What matters in this application isn't energy, but momentum. If the fabric could dissipate ALL the kinetic energy of an explosion/bullet as heat, that would be remarkable but not enough. You can't "dissipate" momentum, regardless of what crazy cool materials you come up with.
In the case of a blast shield covering a window, the strength of the fabric against tearing will allow it to t
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And remember, energy dissapation is the sum of all those bonds moving in response to the force applied. A few hundred billion bonds, just moving a tiny bit each, adds up to a lot of energy.
Have a tissue, I think your nose must be stuffy.
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And if they won't leave you alone?
Remember, they have free will too.
Chip H.
you just proved your own stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
1. menace comes from smart and ill-intentioned people as well as just dumb people
2. that tools of war are used by men engaging the defense from those with bad intentions just as much as it is used by those with bad intentions
thought experiment for you: a lunatic comes into town with a samurai sword and starts slashing people. reference recent news from omaha nnebraska if you think this scenario is not a constant danger throughout human existence
1. in society #1, the people calmly stand there, explaining to him, much in your line of thought, of the stupidity of what he is doing. shortly before their jugulars are slashed. the whole town is wiped out. also wiped out with them, is the philosophy of nonviolence
2. in society #2, as soon as the guy raises his sword, a common townsfolk raises his sword, and the only blood spilled is that of the lunatic. the philosophy of prudent use of arms survives
interestingly enough, the philosophy of nonviolence results in more bloodletting and death (scenario #1). paradoxical, but true
darwinistically speaking, nonviolence is a path to extinction. it sounds really nice, but in the reality of human nature and how human nature plays out, you must, UNFORTUNATELY (see, no warmongering here) have constant use of arms close by, to guard from those with bad intent. you will never stop the creation of people with bad intent in this world. if you respect free will, you respect that every once in awhile, someone somewhere will make a horrible choice, and you must guard against that. i suppose you could disallow free will. that's a certain path to nonviolence: a superfascist state. is that superior in your mind than a free but armed society?
peace in this world is not maintained by an absence of armament, peace in this world is maintained by a balance of armament, a constant tension, a potential that is released to restore the balance of peace when an imbalance in fair action occurs by bad intentioned individuals in public settings
Society #3 (Score:3, Insightful)
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...reference recent news from omaha nnebraska if you think this scenario is not a constant danger throughout human existence...
The news media only report what is sensational and untypical. And yet the world is full of people who think the news describe the world as it is. You might just as well base your world view on the Guinness Book of World Records.
Most people throughout history have lived their lives in peace, untouched by violence. I know I have. We don't get mentioned in history or in the news, because we are boring. Violence is the exception, not the rule of human existence. Otherwise, we would still be apes squabbling i
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PharmCo Exec 1: Why aren't our new smart pills getting rid of all the idiots?
PharmCo Exec 2: Maybe we shouldn't have put them in idiot-proof packaging...
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My grandfather got hit with shrapnel to the kidney without wearing any kind of armor whatsoever, and he's still breathing. In fact he's been hit with pretty much everything imaginable, even a wrecking ball - yes, the kind used to know down buildings - to the head, and is still breathing. Lucky me, I inherited tought genes ;).
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This may not be useful for your everyday Joe on the street, but it'll probably be used as another layer for the Nomex bomb suits they already wear while disarming a bomb.
You mean those suits that all they're good for is to make the remains more identifiable...
If you're sitting on top of a bomb when it goes off, I don't care what you're wearing... you're toast. If I have to disarm a bomb... I'm either going to succeed, fail & buy the farm, or know I'm going to fail, and walk away. don't give me a suit that keeps me from running if I have to, give me my dykes, a voltmeter, a pair of good running shoes, and a black T-Shirt with big yellow letters:
Bomd Squad Technician - I
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