Liquid Ballistic Armor? | Thehacksmith Collab

Fun fact: honey can be non-Newtonian depending on the flowers that went into it and a bunch of other parameters. Honey is really complicated.

Thanks for sending us the STF to experiment! We'll have to try some other advanced chemistry projects with you in the future! That tank armor sounds fascinating...

"Nano[particles] son! They harden in response to physical trauma! You can't hurt me!"

The best protection inserts for motorcycle equipment are made from materials with the same property, but more «solid» in free state, which looks like soft rubber (and doesn't restrict movement much) but becomes hard on impact and distributes impact energy on larger area.

According to a paper I read, 12nm is the ideal size for the silica. PEG to silica should be a 60:40 ratio and the PEG 400 benefits from a 5% addition of PEG 10,000 (possibly a higher % would be even better but studies had not been done at the time I was researching. The graph of results improved with every % addition of PEG 10,000 and the curve showed no sign of flattening, but the study stopped at 5%) and the whole mixture (including alcohol) should be sonicated for even distribution of the silica through the PEG The alcohol needs to be thoroughly evaporated off the aramid/kevlar/whatever so I would think baking it at 85c would be the way to go.

Might be interesting to look at deflocculants. When used in pottery sodium silicate(or other silicates) can be used to turn clay liquid for casting without increasing the water contents much. That way you get pretty viscous liquid with shear thickening properties.

Also, .45 is not chosen for its ability to penetrate armor. It's the worst round for penetrating armor of what is in common usage.

This is great! I always hoped body armor could be more expensive. Try mixing the opal with HP printer ink

Next collab: Hacksmith, *insert an American ballistics channel*, and I made a tank

The interesting thing to look at would not be penetration, but damage — getting shot wearing soft armor may not result in bullet penetration, but it can easily bruise and crack ribs. You won’t see that find of improvment in the samples you were sent though. If you wanted to measure this, a force sensitive resistor grid with peak hold will give you a great idea of how (and if) the shear thickening fluid spread out the force appreciably.

I had a good chuckle when you mentioned ruining glassware over a shot of a Dollarama hermetic jar. I love those things for all kinds of stuff.

Really nice scientific technique putting an empty bag in the control sample for the clay test. Absolutely perfect, these details usually matter a lot!

How do you avoid the particles settling out of suspension when layering them like this?

Such a cool idea. The ooblek was one of those first experiments I did in chemistry as a child and I still think it’s one of the coolest things ever. Never knew WHY it acted that way before. Thanks for explaining!

Nanoparticles, son!

"Nanoparticles, son! They harden in response to physical trauma."

it might be significant to mention that 45 acp definitely has a kick, it is relitively slow compared to most bullets and has more of a “blunt force” sort of impact rather than “piercing”. its a larger bullet going at a (relitively) slower rate compared to something like a 9mm. so its good against soft targets, but tends to be easier to stop as well with protection.

I wondered what it would take to make a suit like that work in real life, but I figured it would have to integrate some electro or magneto rheological fluids.

Yeeeahhhh the man uploaded!!!

Hacksmith: Hey we're making a bulletproof vest wanna help? This Guy: Yea I was just looking for a reason to make opal soup