I wouldn't be too surprised to find out the fast food industry uses some form of glitter to make things look tasty. If you imagine that for example most burgers are usually precooked frozen meat that's then reheated, getting it to look like freshly made can be quite a challenge.
What Is Glitter?
71–80 of 117 posts
Re: What Is Glitter?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought defense would be another likely user. Chaff would use huge quantities of it.
Chaff is a little different. For instance, most glitter is plastic, and plastic wouldn't do any good against radar. Here's what it really looks like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Usnchaff...
But but metallized plastic!
Yup, wiki says it can be metallized plastic: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaff_(countermeasure)
Re: What Is Glitter?
#73“A way to make long winter nights slightly brighter, despite the offshore presence of Germans.”
Well that came out of nowhere.
Re: What Is Glitter?
#74I'll say it- The US Military And not because its particularly useful, but as a method to funnel money from taxpayers into a few glitter companies. They play along and everyone makes money. This passes the- "Why is it a Secret", "Why it can be a secret", and "Why they buy so much".
...ah yes the military glitter industrial complex
Re: What Is Glitter?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum go from being not on the film to being on the film without at least some Scotch tape? “They evaporate aluminum and deposit it on it,” said Mr. Shetty. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum be evaporated? “It’s a very, very thin layer. They put it in a vacuum chamber, then evaporate the aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. “With heat,” his son added. “What are they…
Is this a lack of understanding, or a narrative written with a supposed lack of understanding to effectively communicate to a general audience? The type of person reading this is probably not trying to relive a high school science class.
Neither possibility is good. I like science writers that know how to explain things, not ones that pretend to be stupid to pander to the reader.
Re: What Is Glitter?
#76Here's a huge thread on Reddit trying to figure out which mystery industry is the largest buyer of glitter: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/a8hrk0... No conclusive results yet, but I believe Reddit will deliver.
I'm guessing floor tiles/fake stone benchtops. Huge market that would require a lot of glitter and it's not something you initially think would contain glitter. The expensive fake stone benchtops would feel "cheaper" if you knew that it was just glitter making them look good.
I was thinking asphalt and concrete - it seems that New York uses a specific percentage of mica flakes in their sidewalks, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that roadways would use something to aid reflectivity as well.
Re: What Is Glitter?
#77It is allegedly mixed with bleach and used by the coal industry to make the smoke look white. People don't like seeing black smoke.
Re: What Is Glitter?
#78I love the author's humorous descriptions
> Metalization, he explained, is the process by which aluminum is deposited on both sides of the film. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum go from being not on the film to being on the film without at least some Scotch tape? “They evaporate aluminum and deposit it on it,” said Mr. Shetty. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum be evaporated? “It’s a very, very thin layer. They put it in a vacuum chamber, then evaporate the aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. “With heat,” his son added. “What are they evaporating out of it?” I asked. “Aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. I have no idea how humans figured out how to do that, or why it occurred to them to even try, but it sounds expensive.
Re: What Is Glitter?
#79It is allegedly mixed with bleach and used by the coal industry to make the smoke look white. People don't like seeing black smoke.
Are you trying to start an urban legend or something? There are a million ways that doesn't make sense, but hey, at least you're being creative... :)
Re: What Is Glitter?
#80Here's a huge thread on Reddit trying to figure out which mystery industry is the largest buyer of glitter: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/a8hrk0... No conclusive results yet, but I believe Reddit will deliver.
Many people are mentioning chaff, and heck, literally the first sentence of the Wikipedia article says:
"metallized glass fibre(fiber) or plastic" [1]
Metallized pastic sounding a lot like... glitter.