It's surface tension: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/time-warp-water-droplet.html

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

When they get a process going that can make carbon nanotubes at industrial volumes it will be as significant (if not more) than the development of steel. This is THE materials science breakthrough of our generation.
A 1 mm thick nanotube wire could hold 6,000 KG of weight. It is thirty times stronger than Kevlar and nearly a hundred times stronger than the finest steel.


This is without even bringing to light their electrical properties. They have a chirality induced band gap, so they can be either semiconductive or metallic based on structure. They are absurdly thermally and (in the case of metallic tubes) electrically conductive, due to ballistic conductivity. Electrical current densities are theorized to be more than 1000 times greater than copper. They truly are a miracle material. Biggest problem is the safety issues and cost of production.

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A visual representation of his explanation of one being akin to the other.

http://vimeo.com/groups/3114/videos/8069853


>> ^EDD:

gnarly. you seem to know your carbon nanotubes, so care to explain how the potential projected practical applications of graphene stack up to them?

I say, "boing...boing...boing..." everytime I see your avitar.
>> ^Payback:

Who else said "boing... boing... boing..." at 1:15?

>> ^COriolanus:

what was the air pressure?


I'm guessing this took place at a relatively normal air pressure. If it were a vacuum then they would need to cool the water below ~0C to keep it from boiling (depending on purity).

Now I want to see what happens when the nanotubes are cold enough to form ice crystals within the droplets.

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Whew, I'm not a scientist so I was really happy they put arrows on the movie to show exactly when the two droplets merged to form one droplet. I was all like "But I still see two droplets!" and then it turned out it was once the two droplets collided that it happened.

Graphene is essentially the same thing, you could say that nanotubes are tubes made out of graphene. Graphene and nanotubes require the same kind of manufacturing. AFAIK they're farther ahead on developing nanotubes on a large scale than graphene, but any advancements on nanotubes will likely result in a boost to graphene development as well.


>> ^EDD:

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
When they get a process going that can make carbon nanotubes at industrial volumes it will be as significant (if not more) than the development of steel. This is THE materials science breakthrough of our generation.
A 1 mm thick nanotube wire could hold 6,000 KG of weight. It is thirty times stronger than Kevlar and nearly a hundred times stronger than the finest steel.

gnarly. you seem to know your carbon nanotubes, so care to explain how the potential projected practical applications of graphene stack up to them?

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

When they get a process going that can make carbon nanotubes at industrial volumes it will be as significant (if not more) than the development of steel. This is THE materials science breakthrough of our generation.
A 1 mm thick nanotube wire could hold 6,000 KG of weight. It is thirty times stronger than Kevlar and nearly a hundred times stronger than the finest steel.


gnarly. you seem to know your carbon nanotubes, so care to explain how the potential projected practical applications of graphene stack up to them?

How many droplets have to merge before they become one drop?

6 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

Your video, Hitting droplets of nitroglycerin with a hammer in slow mo., has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^E_Nygma:

does he really need ALL those pens?
um yes..it's part of the protective gear when mixing nitroglycerin.

Xie xie. Xie xie.

In reply to this comment by deathcow:
*doublepromote this is awesome, point it at a bucket of swirling water next and have it model ink droplet distribution