Weirdest Substances on Earth

[unfilteredJW]

Fun fact about Vantablack, some artist douchenugget bought the sole rights for it and doesn't allow anyone to use it at all even though it has many applications beneficial to scientific research.

I MAY be wrong, but I think that it was only for artistic use that it was applied to. It was still given/sold to defense/science firms.

[SirCowdog]

Very weird, indeed. Also, I don’t know why, but looking at the black circle makes me uncomfortable.

Traumatic experiences with tabletop D&D and a Sphere of Annihilation, perhaps?

[yetgdhfgh]

They should slather that shit on warships and jet fighters for night attacks!

[SirCowdog]

Not looking deeper into the vanta-black's info other than what was said in the video, you can't immediately assume it absorbs EM frequencies other than the visible spectrum as well as it does with visible, but it probably does pretty well if the frequencies are close enough. So it probably absorbs a lot of infrared as well. So yeah, it must heat up nicely, and have a pretty high emmittance to share that love with its vicinity.

Sound waves are mechanical, not electromagnetic, so it's a completely different behavior.

Visible light, like all forms of EM radiation, carries energy. Thus, the more an object absorbs light the more it gains energy from it and the more it heats up. Therefore vantablack should heat up quite effectively from visible light (black objects tend to heat up under direct sunlight, for example). BTW, there's nothing special about IR radiation (infrared) when it comes to heating an object; any form of EM-radiation will heat up an object if it gets absorbed and has sufficient intensity.

Sound is not EM radiation; its nature, and frequencies as well, are entirely different from those of visible light. Thus, no simple modification of the vantablack material could "extend" its absorbance to cover sound. The materials used to absorb sound typically require much larger structural features than those present in vantablack (which uses aligned carbon nanotubes). Still, you could probably cover the inner walls of an antiechoic chamber with vantablack and make a room that is both very, very dark and very, very silent (you could shine a flashlight around but only see black, while all the sounds would be highly muted due to the echoes being suppressed).

Laser is (coherent, monochromatic) EM radiation, sound is not. Sound is a pressure wave propagating in some medium (e.g. air, water, solids). EM radiation is an electromagnetic wave phenomenon (= a wave "made" of oscillating electric and magnetic fields), and it doesn't require any medium to exist.

See, this is exactly what I was looking for!

So..hmm....perhaps it could be used in areas with lots of sunlight, but not much heat, such as northern Alaska, or Antarctica, maybe outer space? And that idea about a sound-proof room with vanta-black walls. Holy shit scary! Talk about sensory deprivation.

I suppose it probably also has applications for things like telescopes, or maybe microscopes, where you want to limit the light coming in to a very specific angle. Cameras as well, now that I think about it.

[Dr Assbandit]

I MAY be wrong, but I think that it was only for artistic use that it was applied to. It was still given/sold to defense/science firms.

He faced a lot of backlash for it and I'm not a 100% certain either but I think it was due to a total say in rights. I'll look into it again as the scientific applications for it are pretty damn awesome and ingenious.

[unfilteredJW]

He faced a lot of backlash for it and I'm not a 100% certain either but I think it was due to a total say in rights. I'll look into it again as the scientific applications for it are pretty damn awesome and ingenious.

Yeah, all I remember was the artists rights and some other artist came up with a pink color and sold it with the stipulation that artist could never use it.

But I am not known for my memory.

[Deleted]

Fair enough but in comparison to other natural substances that sounds meh...

Vantablack's main use is in very niche areas. It's expensive as pope testicles, but it's worth it for things like very precise telescopes. It's a material that removes reflectivity as a concern.

[breadisfunny]

draenei blood. it's blue.

[Deleted]

Fun fact about Vantablack, some artist douchenugget bought the sole rights for it and doesn't allow anyone to use it at all even though it has many applications beneficial to scientific research.

smh... is it expensive to make at least?

[Hooked]

Kinda yeah, it blocks 99.9% of light.

Absorbing light and blocking light are 2 different things. Absorbing light means when light hits it, it doesn't reflect or shine. Blocking light is more like a pair of sunglasses or tinted windows, and how much light is let through them.

[LiiLoSNK]

I think there's this really obscure substance on my calendar that makes it look like we're in the year 2017, but there's no way that can be possible.

It's clearly 2015 still because everyone is talking about vantablack like it's new or interesting.

[Deleted]

Everything but the magnetic slime and the light devouring paint was kinda meh.
Kinda want to coat a trench coat with vantablack and mess with people on a dark night now thou

It would actually make you easier to spot.

[Deleted]

It would actually make you easier to spot.

yeah... black with zero light reflection would stand out like crazy.. wtf is this voodoo

[Deleted]

gallium. a metal with the melting point so low you can melt it with your body's touch