I warn you in advance that the actual material science content in the above video is contained very tightly between 0:33 and 2:14. The rest of the video is (at the beginning) an advertisement for a future video (the glitterbomb series is actually worth watching...begins as frivolous revenge and morphs into a serious examination of global criminal capitalism...but it's not about matsci) and (at the end) an advertisement for Rober's $249 online engineering class).
But that 0:33-2:14 shows a fun application of thermal expansion in which Rober built what he's calling an ice cream 'safe'. It's simply a metal sleeve and cap for an ice cream pint. The bottom of the sleeve is made of stainless steel, and the top is made of anodized aluminum. As Rober explains, the two fit together snugly at room temp, and the aluminum contracts 50% more at cold temperatures than does the stainless steel, locking the two parts together.
Simplicity itself, and a thing I would totally buy to demonstrate in my class...if only Rober would sell them.
I have searched the web for other, similar products thinking that somebody would have produced them, but I couldn't find one. Maybe the materials and machining precision make them cost-prohibitive.
If anybody comes across one of these for sale, could you send the info my way, please?
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