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'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

bbc.com

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Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#71

Post by VBprogrammer »

yetihehe wrote: post #61
FredPret wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of joining the dots, did you know that both the train and steam power (albeit a toy version of it) were invented in ancient Egypt? Think what could have been had we joined those two dots in 2000BC instead of 17-1800 AD. I should note that their train was of course pulled by slaves and not a locomotive.

They didn't have one important dot: cheap good steel or other durable materials. Steel for them was more expensive and hard to get than titanium now.

This reminds me of the 2.8kg pyramid which sits atop the Washington Monument. At the time it was cast, it was the largest single casting of an exotic metal which cost more than silver, known to you and I as Aluminium.

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#72

Post by ceejayoz »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #69
walrus01 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

see also, color manufacturers that will sell to anybody who ISN'T Anish Kapoor https://www.dezeen.com/2017/07/07/anish-kapoor-banned-from-u...

FTA: > In response, UK-based artist Stuart Semple created a pigment that he claimed to be the world's "pinkest pink" and made it available to purchase on his website for "everyone but Anish Kapoor". I love artists.

He managed to get his hands on some.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOWz73wgj7R/

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#73

Post by walrus01 »

a4isms wrote: post #46

Reminds me of “anti-flash white,” developed for bombers during the early years of the cold war. The theory was that the specially formulated white paint would reflect enough of a nuclear explosion’s thermal energy to allow the aircraft to survive the explosion as the bomber departed the scene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-flash_white It was also used on interceptors like the Avro Arrow prototypes.

The E-6 Mercury is painted in anti flash white

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACAMO

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#74

Post by whalesalad »

dejj wrote: post #2

Also: Black 3.0, the purchasable variant of Vantablack For sale at: https://www.culturehustleusa.com/

Neat. I was wondering if you could buy that stuff. There are trim pieces in my car I want to paint with it to eliminate reflections in the cabin.

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#75

Post by duxup »

cyberlab wrote: post #4

Someone needs to compile a list of all this fringe tech that I see popping up in my feeds, almost daily now. I know there are techpress blogs that pump out articles like this, but there doesn't seem to be an authoritative compendium of such tech anywhere on the net. I could curate this by hand with 3 hours of free time and some Red Bull I suppose. The reason I want this is because we seem to be swimming in innovation…

I think ultimately what you want is some measure of say it's practicality / viability to really make change?

I think the catch is that if you really knew that... you'd be out making an insane amount of money as you'd be able to pick and choose winners / make them work ;)

I'm reminded of the old TV series "Connections" where lots of individual innovations are cobbled together over surprisingly long periods of time to really have an impact. Mostly... it seemed like a combo of inspiration and happenstance when someone strung them together.

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#76

Post by appleflaxen »

mrob wrote: post #19
jbverschoor wrote: post #10

Can someone explain the difference between this and a mirror? A mirror reflects also something like 98%, right?

A mirror reflects with specular reflection. When parallel rays of light hit a flat mirror they remain parallel after being reflected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_reflection Paint reflects primarily with diffuse reflection. The rays of light are scattered in all directions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_reflection

That's an awesome learning point; thank you.

What percent of the light does a mirror reflect in a specular way?

Re: 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

#77

Post by goodcanadian »

dieortin wrote: post #51
Tade0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black in the winter would make the building lose heat faster - especially during the night.

How so? It would absorb more radiation from the sun. In cold European cities the roofs are traditionally black.

Things that readily absorb energy readily emit it also.
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