301–310 of 336 posts
I often marvel at the densities of the various heavy metals especially compared to steel. The densest of them like osmium are almost 3x as dense! I wish I could afford an osmium cube. I guess tungsten is the best cheapest-yet-still-heavy option.
One additional benefit that gives me more joy than fidgeting with it: it is great educational prop. Kids that visit my place have a habit of picking it up, either by their own initiative or prompted by me. Being surprised at the weight they start asking question and are then receptive to hear me give a short explanation. I love that curiosity.
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Theodore Gray has a story about visiting a company with an electron beam furnace with Oliver Sacks to turn a pile of loose iridium beads into a bar: https://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/077.x3/index.... Some of the cost isn't just from using the equipment, but because you'll have some evaporation from melting in vacuum. He says at the start of the article that Sacks started with a kilogram of beads: >After…
Normally all furnaces or vacuum chambers where precious metals may evaporate have their walls covered with some metallic foil, e.g. aluminum foil (while the worked metal is heated at very high temperatures by the electron beam, the walls remain much colder), on which the precious metals lost during heating will condense. After a production batch, the metallic foil is replaced and the used foil is chemically processed…
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i read something about a guy shattering his tungsten wedding band on his wedding night, after deciding that slapping his hands on concrete was how you're supposed to dance. professional advice: don't use an exotic metal for your wedding band. some fire departments can't cut it if your ring finger swells up.
Or you could just not wear rings at all. I'm an EMT and the only trauma injury that gives me the creeps is degloving. Happens e.g. when somebody falls off a ladder and their ring gets caught on a nail on the way down. Don't google it.
I used to work with tungsten carbide cubes during my PhD thesis. They're used in multianvil high-pressure synthesis. With the right setup you can reach almost 20 GPa of pressure. Not as much as with diamond anvil cells, but you have more reasonable sample sizes (a few milligrams). And thats still like the pressure pretty deep into Earth's mantle. I also used the opportunity to snap a neat picture of a polished WC cub…
It is, for all practical purposes, impossible to buy an actual tungsten ring; all sold as "tungsten" are really just tungsten carbide ceramic. Really-pure elemental tungsten is not difficult to machine, unlike common tungsten alloys. A company near Los Angeles, American Metals, will sell you a 0.99999 pure tungsten boule for a few $thousand. You can ask for it to have a nominal (e.g.) 22 mm outer diameter, and slice…
Tungsten carbide: 15.63 g/cm3
Tungsten: 19.3 g/cm3
Pure tungsten is about 1.23 times more dense, not twice as much.
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i read something about a guy shattering his tungsten wedding band on his wedding night, after deciding that slapping his hands on concrete was how you're supposed to dance. professional advice: don't use an exotic metal for your wedding band. some fire departments can't cut it if your ring finger swells up.
Or you could just not wear rings at all. I'm an EMT and the only trauma injury that gives me the creeps is degloving. Happens e.g. when somebody falls off a ladder and their ring gets caught on a nail on the way down. Don't google it.
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https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995
$9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
I mean with any luck we'll find a pure iridium asteroid and bring the thing back to earth. Iridium paperweights for everyone!
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It is, for all practical purposes, impossible to buy an actual tungsten ring; all sold as "tungsten" are really just tungsten carbide ceramic. Really-pure elemental tungsten is not difficult to machine, unlike common tungsten alloys. A company near Los Angeles, American Metals, will sell you a 0.99999 pure tungsten boule for a few $thousand. You can ask for it to have a nominal (e.g.) 22 mm outer diameter, and slice…
>Tungsten carbide is not heavy at all. Pure tungsten is twice as dense. Tungsten carbide: 15.63 g/cm3 Tungsten: 19.3 g/cm3 Pure tungsten is about 1.23 times more dense, not twice as much.
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i read something about a guy shattering his tungsten wedding band on his wedding night, after deciding that slapping his hands on concrete was how you're supposed to dance. professional advice: don't use an exotic metal for your wedding band. some fire departments can't cut it if your ring finger swells up.
Or you could just not wear rings at all. I'm an EMT and the only trauma injury that gives me the creeps is degloving. Happens e.g. when somebody falls off a ladder and their ring gets caught on a nail on the way down. Don't google it.
A technician climbed a telegraph pole without proper equipment and wearing a ring. He and slipped and tore off the finger wearing the ring. The way it was described to me was horrific, the tendons were pulled out of his hand as well.
I've never seen it so I don't know for sure if it really was like that but the description alone was sufficient for me and I always remove my rings when doing anything like that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
i read something about a guy shattering his tungsten wedding band on his wedding night, after deciding that slapping his hands on concrete was how you're supposed to dance. professional advice: don't use an exotic metal for your wedding band. some fire departments can't cut it if your ring finger swells up.
Or you could just not wear rings at all. I'm an EMT and the only trauma injury that gives me the creeps is degloving. Happens e.g. when somebody falls off a ladder and their ring gets caught on a nail on the way down. Don't google it.