blade that can slice through anything?

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by hiimwayne, Nov 5, 2002.

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  1. Ectropic Registered Senior Member

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    Bucky Balls is a funny name.

    I think that when talking about this we have to limit it to physical innanimate objects like a typical sword in appearance. What are the Nano people always talking about? Bucky balls and nanotubes? I would say that they are the way to go right now. After all the reason a diamond is strong is because of the carbon inside isn't it? If we form it how we want in to the tubes or spheres I would assume it would be stronger than a diamond or titanium.
     
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  3. RDT2 Registered Senior Member

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    Cutting tools

    Let's put some science into this thread on Sciforums.

    1. All edges will blunt or crack with use. A good cutting knife is one that can be easily resharpened. That's why soft carbon steels are used by professionals - they blunt easily but professionals will always sharpen a knife before use. Only housewives want knives that don't need resharpening.

    2. That includes ceramic blades - they are hard but will chip with use and are the devil (kitchen devil?) to resharpen.

    3. Diamond is the hardest substance known - not because it contains carbon but because it is pure carbon in a tetrahedral crystal structure. Graphite is also pure carbon in a layered hexagonal structure and so is one of the 'softest' solids known.

    4. Diamond, like any brittle material, can be cut by a metal blade - the diamond industry does it everyday. It simply means that the blade will wear away - and require replacement - faster than the diamond is cut. Dusting the blade with diamond dust improves the cutting/wear rate.

    5. Diamond can be easily cleaved along its well-defined crystallographic plance by a hard metal chisel - this is the first step in creating a 'polished' diamond jewel and is the diamond industry does it every day.

    6. Nuclear explosions - and indeed any explosion - will not slice through everything. At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, structures such as pylons were relatively unscathed. The blast (as opposed to the heat and radiation) from any explosion is an overpressure that works best against slab-sided structures like walls. It is relatively ineffective against skeletal structures.


    7. All of this is readily available in library books.

    8. There is ongoing research in which blades are vibrated at ultrasonic rates to improve cutting rate. This may not be readily available yet.
     
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  5. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    actully stainless steel is used, NOT high carbon steel and for a very good reason

    acid etches high carbon steel so just slicing tomatoes will wreck that blade for good

    ceramic blades wont go blunt but your right, they will chip and they are very brittle so while good for slicing say parsly all day every day they MUST be well looked after for a slight fall will shatter the blade

    each blade has a different use

    a high carbon stainless steel blade would be fine on a chopping axe because it doesnt HAVE to keep an ultra fine edge, cuts with the weight not the edge. Using a ceramic choping axe on the other hand would be shear idiocy. now if you wanted to use a ceramic knife on say cucumber or parsly

    for tomatoes and other aciditic fruits and veg a stainless steel knife is the best, easy to keep rasor sharp and wont etch

    there are also different sharpness the knives are kept at depending on the job

    a butcher will keep his knives ultra sharp which will mean he has to resharpen them all the time, wearing them away and taking up time but doing a better job. A chef on the other hand has his very sharp compared to domestic use but blunt compared to a butcher, this means they stay sharp longer and u dont have to replace them as often and u dont spend as much time sharperning knives, say once a fortnight on a stone and ever use (or a little less( on the steel rather than every night on the stone

    i dont know but i would say that surgical knives would make butchers knives look blunt, probably profectionally sharpened ever use rather than like a butcher or we do but i dont know
     
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  7. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    scalpels and such, from what I know, are so sharp you woulnd't feel it cutting you.

    The angle a blade is sharened is just as important as the sharpness. A cold chisel is ground to a 45 degree angle, whereas most knives are a 20 degree angle. You can sharpen both to a razor edge.

    Anyone knnow the exact definition of a razor edge?
     
  8. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    23,049
    where the molicules form points?

    i would say its a compairison to the sharpness of a cut throat razor but as no one uses them anymore no one knows how sharp that is
     
  9. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    18,523
    “Its as sharpe as the devils tail”

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    I still believe that a plasma blade would be the only thing able to cut though everything as well as maintain now damage to the blade (a beam of super-hot ion vapors) of course there would be a titanic energy need.
     
  10. Maniac11919 Registered Member

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    7
    interesting thought, empennage but u forget however that nuclear blasts dont affect things such as concrete structures... so technically it cant cut anything
     
  11. AntonK Technomage Registered Senior Member

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    Who said nuclear blasts don't affect concrete structures? Concrete is definately succeptible to heat. You may be thinking of neutron bombs which are designed just to kill life and leave structures standing. Or perhaps you are referring just to the radiation of a bomb being blocked by the concrete. The actual BLAST of a nuclear bomb will most definately crush and destroy concrete. The heat alone would vaporize it.

    -AntonK
     
  12. Maniac11919 Registered Member

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    interesting.. perhaps i am an idiot...?

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  13. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    AntonK, have you seen pictures of hiroshima? Concrete structures are definitely capable of withstanding nuclear blast.
     
  14. Ectropic Registered Senior Member

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    195
    That might be true beyond a point where everything is carorized, but don't forget that today's bombs are immensely more powerful than those that were dropped on Japan.

    The site below had some example of what would happen if a one megaton bomb on a city. Steel reincorced concrete buildings are destroyed out to two km from ground zero. Think of what would be left of a sprawling metropolis if a circle 4 km wide was carved out of it.

    http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/ap1bmb.html

    America is supposed to have bombs that are 9 Megaton, but I know I read somewhere about the soviets having a 50 megaton bomb.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2003
  15. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Is more about distance from the blast rather then invisibility, ya a concert bunker would survive a blast from a multi-megaton bomb from as close a mile way but nothing would survive from just feet way! That what I have been saying: a heating or vaporizing blade will cut EVERYTHING nothing could survive no matter how strong it is or how high is vaporizing point is.
     
  16. grimreaper Registered Senior Member

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    156
    truth

    a dubble edged sword which cuts both ways
     
  17. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    2,113
    Point taken, ectropic.

    I believe the fifty mT bomb was only one test blast. as for arsenals, that would have to be looked up.
     
  18. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    actually it was 59Mt. Say so in "The Nuclear Almanac" published by Addison-Wesley inc.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2003
  19. On Radioactive Waves lost in the continuum Registered Senior Member

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    I heard it was up to 80 Mt , not known for sure. anyhow, supposedly it started a fire the size of connecticut, in a relativly cold area.
     
  20. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    2,671
    Re: Bucky Balls is a funny name.

    givent hat nano tubes are just that, small tubes, I can't see them being used for cutting anything. Try slicing a loaf of bread w/ PVC pipe - same deal, just on a smaller scale.

    As for buckey balls, they are very large (60 C atoms IIRC), and again are usefull for holding stuff, but certainlny not for cutting.


    I'm thinking super fluid jet blades (like a high-pressure washer, but with lH2). in order to cut something, you have to seperate it' molecules/atoms. what better way than to have something which atomically takes up less space than the items you want to cut? given the spacial overlap effect seen with super-cooled H2, I bet if you could keep it cold, you could wedge it through nearly anything. it's be denser than anything you could put it against on this planet!
     
  21. Maniac11919 Registered Member

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    Things within a few feet of the bomb may not actually have been vaporized in theory... The sheer force of the blast itself may have done nothing more than essentially moved them large distances, possibly entire structure at times, far from the center of the blast while remaining completely in tact.
     
  22. Maniac11919 Registered Member

    Messages:
    7
    Things within a few feet of the bomb may not actually have been vaporized in theory... The sheer force of the blast itself may have done nothing more than essentially moved things large distances, possibly entire structure at times, far from the center of the blast while remaining completely in tact.
     
  23. curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

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    2,429
    First, questions:
    1) I've heard some things about katanas, and the many types of them during the Japanese history. My question:
    Are these swords actually present in history? If yes, what distinguish each other, physically?
    Masamune, Muramasa, Osafune, Dojigiri, Kunitsuna, Yasutsuna.
    2) I heard that Damascus sword is one quality sword. Any explanation?
    3) Off-topic: Estoc is known to be able to pierce through anything (not slice, this is why I say it's off-topic). Why?

    Second, some (partially silly) suggestions:
    1) I'd rather say that beam sabre is hard to make, but if it could be made, wouldn't it slice with heat?
    2) 'Tiny amchine saw' made in the sword: what do you say?

    Hit me
     
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