Smart Materials of the Future - with Anna Ploszajski

"Rock-paper-scissors is a game that you use to compare materials' properties. The rock blunts the scissors because rock is harder than stainless steel."

C'mon, nerd, rock-paper-scissors is just a game like mumbledepeg or roshambo.

The simplicity of showing a smart material via pine cones is brilliant.

Oh, I found a definition of smart materials that I very much like (via BBC): "[s]mart materials have properties that react to changes in their environment. This means that one of their properties can be changed by an external condition, such as temperature, light, pressure or electricity. This change is reversible and can be repeated many times."

Other smart materials mentioned in the video are lime mortar from the Egyptian pyramids, piezoelectric quartz crystals, thermochromic pigments (on a mug), NiTiNOL, and ferrofluids. Most of the latter materials are applied to the future of airplane design.

Boeing says it created lightest metal ever

Apparently strong, lightweight materials matter when building airplanes?

Either that or the Boeing engineers just want to dominate their kids' egg drop challenges at school.

From a cnn.com article about the microlattice...

The microlattice weighs only about one tenth as much as carbon fiber, and is actually slightly lighter than air itself, said Bill Carter, the director of the Sensors and Materials Laboratory at HRL.

It will likely first be used on space rockets that Boeing plans to build in about five years, and it should make its way into commercial planes about five years after that, said Carter. He said the cost of manufacturing will have to come down a little more before it is economically feasible to use on cars.

Boeing 777 Wing Test

This one isn't for the faint of heart of the afeared of flying as the engineering team of Boeing pushes the wings of the 777 far past their design limit load.

The wing shatters at 154% of the strongest forces that the wing would ever be expected to encounter during a flight - and certainly well beyond anything it would encounter during a routine flight, and when it shatters, it shatters. This video then replays the shattering - with the echoing "154" - over and over again.

Oh, wait...


[Spoiler Warning]

Jet engine testing (superalloys)

I know a couple of our master teachers who should NOT watch this video because of their little fear of flying thing.

I, on the other hand, have no fear of flying at all. I don't fly very often - about twice in a typical year - and am totally relaxed when I am flying because I know that airplanes are overengineered to the point of ridiculous safety. I hope...

This video shows Rolls Royce testing one of their jet engines in the case of engine turbine blade during an event of catastrophic failure. The super slow-mo footage of the turbine going off balance and recovering is actually terrifically reassuring to me as a passenger.