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http://aluminiuminsider.com/researchers-confirm-discovery-floating-aluminium/
Like most common metals, aluminium lacks natural buoyancy. However, with a little rearranging of the metal’s natural molecular structure, one can produce an ultra-light crystalline form of the metal that is actually less dense than water and, as a result, floats upon it.
Research conducted by Utah State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor Alexander Boldyrev and published in the latest issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry C has yielded just such a crystalline form using computational modeling.
“My colleagues’ approach to this challenge was very innovative,” explained Boldyrev. “They started with a known crystal lattice, in this case, a diamond, and substituted every carbon atom with an aluminum tetrahedron.”
Boldyrev’s colleagues, namely Iliya Getmanskii, Vitaliy Koval, Rusian Minyaev, and Vladimir Minkin of Southern Federal University in Rostov-on Don, Russia, confirmed the structure which is metastable and has a density of 0.61 grams per cubic centimeter. By comparison, conventional aluminium possesses a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter.
(Score: 3, Informative) by qzm on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:28AM (1 child)
That foamed Aluminium floats on water.
As does Aluminium honeycomb.
As of course does an Aluminium hull boat.
Hell, we have inter-island barges with concrete hulls..
And yes, I know thats not QUITE what they mean, but it goes point out how stupid the headline is.
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:40AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves