http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20620

 

weird liquid/solid stuff.

 

iirc, you can make something similar out of household items... cornflower and water, maybe?

 

anyhoo, thought it was interesting.

ahh non newtonian fluids. fun stuff but its a bugger to cram through a pipe.

 

incidentally butter and margerine are also non-newtonian fluids but with the opposite effect. they are solid-ish until you impact them and then they flow quite well as long as there is a good bit of shear stress on them.

Liquid crystals and blood are both non-newtonian, a friend of mine is research flow of these through very flexible tubes and anotehr is doing the modelling with a mind to understanding circulation systems better...

i remember hearing about a bullet proof vest application. The vest only hardens up on impact, so a soldier has more range of motion.

Corn starch/shear thickening rocks

 

How the hell did they mix so much of it though? An industrial mixer?

same way they mix concrete, big barrel and stir

thixotropic and dialatant, i think are the names given to the common ones.

thixotropic flows easily with stress then locks up

while dialatant freezes with stress then flows

my favourite is of course ferro-fluids. magnetite powder in oil with emulsifiers

i've seen a type of rubber / putty that hardens with high speed flex

i remember hearing about a bullet proof vest application. The vest only hardens up on impact, so a soldier has more range of motion.

Indeed, they work using the same principle.

 

Although your average non-newtonian fluid would be penetrated by the huge force exerted by the tip of a bullet, the fluid used in those bullet proof vests becomes a lot harder and a lot quicker than the kind of fluid you can make at home.