Posted on 06/03/2017 12:20:05 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Air Force cadet Hayley Weir had an idea that turned out to be a game changer. "It was just the concept of going out there and stopping a bullet with something that we had made in a chemistry lab."
The 21-year-old Weir approached Air Force Academy Assistant Professor Ryan Burke with the idea. He was skeptical.
"I said, 'I'm not really sure this is going to work, the body armor industry is a billion-plus-dollar industry," he noted.
Weir's idea was to combine anti-ballistic fabric with what's known as a shear thickening fluid to create a less heavy material to use in body armor. She demonstrated the principle to Burke by combining water and cornstarch in a container and asking the professor to jam his finger into the paste-like goo.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sometimes not knowing someone else failed in doing something is a good thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-uAqgd6Oc
While not germane to the video, Troy Hurtubise is the Bear Suit guy, if you have some spare time you might want to check out some of the videos on that subject.
“Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.” - Robert A. Heinlein
4 reference ...
Money well spent.
You, however, were on a roll but missed the second misspelling.
There are 'good kids' out there, good millennials who are working hard on their careers. There are young thinkers and creators out there. We hear so much from the Marxists kids and snowflakes, sometime you think all is lost. This is an inspiration and a ray of hope.
Way to go 2nd Lieutenant Hayley Weir!
You are quite right, of course; except when the actor follows the same steps that failed earlier. The outcome may be different in this case as a result of simply introducing the original idea to a different world.
Chemical interaction/degradation of the materials? Ability to retain the materials in the proper placement to work together (fluid component migration)?
My son maintains that we live in multiple universes, and that since the invention of the atomic bomb, the rational, probable universes started to trim off, and THAT is why the world we currently live in is so weird...
Maybe they gave up too soon, or more likely, their government funding ran out.
Perhaps a different weave of the Kevlar? A different starch source? Hard water vs distilled?
Who knows?
I once shared a cubicle with a test engineer who bitterly complained that his washable ink suddenly wasn’t working properly.
I asked what changed?
Nothing! He says.
What do you use for ink?
Karo’s syrup and red food coloring.
AHA! I say, you did change the recipe!
Waddaya mean? Karo’s syrup and McCormick red food coloring!
There’s the change!
What?
They banned red dye #2, the food coloring is different...
He had to go on a long drive to several small towns to get bottles from older lots.
Reminds me of Cmdr. Edward Ellsberg's book about rehabilitating the wrecked Italian naval base in Massawa, Eritrea in WWI.
Among many other problems, he inherited:
Machine shops whose equipment's driving motors were smashed and had parts removed from each one. According to the "experts", those buildings were "Totally worthless. He'd have to wait for a complete new shipment from the States." - months away.
He recognized that the Italians weren't consistent in their sabotage - not all motors smashed the same way. He had all the motors stripped and cannibalized and ended up with 20 good ones. Same deal with machine parts. By the next day he had a working lathe and mill. Using junked crucibles, he cast new parts out of bronze or iron, trued them on the lathe, cut teeth with the mill and soon had the whole shop at a production level greater than before the sabotage - all in 30 days.
Two large sunken dry docks with their bottom compartments blown open. Experts said 50 divers and 200 men taking six month with no guarantees. The Admiralty have given up on their salvage.
With 16 Americans, two old diving rigs and four air compressors, he raises the big one (600' long) in nine days. No expert thought to use compressed air.
He had the job of scraping the hulls of Tobruk supply ships who hulls were so fouled they could only do four knots, making them ideal targets. He had three days for each ship. He hires a horde of Eritreans for the job, only to find out they were too slow. The Brits experts who supervised them said they were worthless and threw up their hands. Ellsberg tells the native chiefs that if they can't do the job in three days he will fire them. "Tough" say the chiefs. "Not even Allah could do better". He then says he will pay them for three days work even if they do the job in less time, figuring two days would be a blessing. The natives get energized and are finishing each ship in 1 1/2 days.
There's plenty more "Can't be done" according to the experts - and he does them. The book is called "Under the Red Sea Sun".
That’s WWII. Dumb keyboard.
Not complicated or cheap enough to peddle to government agencies.
Your son is either wise beyond his years, or is a quantum physicist.
Hopefully they are able to use glycol instead of water, because others have done this and it doesn’t last when it starts to dry out.
Thanks for the mention.
Good point.
He’s not a quantum physicist.
“It could possibly be used to reduce or replace the thick metal plates that protect military aircraft,”
Huh? What aircraft are they talking about? The skin on a fighter jet can not be described as “thick”. The titanium bathtub of the A-10 Warthog is about the only exception that I can think of. Titanium is pretty light compared to steel.
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