Transparent Aluminum | Hacker News Reader

Transparent Aluminum

en.wikipedia.org

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Since everyone is now thinking of Star Trek IV:

The computer that Scotty uses in the Plexicorp scene appears to be a Macintosh Plus, but its internals were completely changed for filming. Its screen was replaced with one from an IBM PC to make it easier to synchronize its video refresh rate with the film camera's frame rate, and the "transparent aluminum" animation was created on an IBM PC by computer graphics company Video Image.

At one hour and one minute into the film, when Dr. McCoy hands Scotty the computer's mouse, is one of the few times James Doohan's missing right middle finger is visible in the entire franchise. The finger was shot off during the invasion of Juno Beach on D-Day.

The computer that Scotty uses to show transparent aluminum was originally going to be an Amiga, but Commodore would only give permission if they bought their own. Apple Computer was willing to give them a Mac for free.

>The computer that Scotty uses to show transparent aluminum was originally going to be an Amiga, but Commodore would only give permission if they bought their own. Apple Computer was willing to give them a Mac for free.

Without knowing all the details, that seems like a dumb move by Commodore. Too bad though that some geeks weren't consulted, since they might have fixed up a Symbolics machine for the scene, which was a movie prop during the 80's.

Sounds like typical Commodore handling of the Amiga. They bungled the shit out of it.

I like this scene a lot but my favorite one is McCoy in the hospital, especially the scene in the elevator where he is horrified we’re still using chemotherapy.

"Dialysis? What is this, the Dark Ages?"

“Doctor gave me a pill, and I grew a new kidney!”

>The finger was shot off during the invasion of Juno Beach on D-Day.

By friendly fire, apparently!

Worth noting that the material is not conductive or otherwise metallic in any way. In a lot of ways this material is similar to Alumina (Sapphire) which you could also describe as "Transparent Aluminum".

Conductive transparent materials do exist (see ITO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_tin_oxide), but this is not it.

Not sure I would qualify ITO as transparent. The thicker the coating the less transmission (but lower resistance) you get.

It's also highly brittle, with a fracture toughness of 2 MPa.m1/2 -- which makes it only marginally tougher than borosilicate glass, and broadly equivalent to many brittle ceramics such as silicon carbide.

6061 aluminum has a fracture toughness of roughly 29 MPa.m1/2.

So "transparent aluminum" exhibits fracture behavior that is much more glass-like than aluminum-like.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering what they need that nitrogen there for. Maybe ALON is easier to manufacture in bulk or something...

I wish there was an actual picture instead of just a molecular structure graph.

I found one here: https://makezine.com/article/science/transparent-aluminum/

Also a video of it being used as Armor? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUszxx2pYc

http://www.surmet.com/technology/alon-optical-ceramics/

Or just saphire (Al2O3).

Fancy watches still use sapphire “glass” displays right?

Samsung Note-3 had tiny sapphire cover over main camera lens.

I recall complaints (on youtube?) that Apple's sapphire glass formulation on the Apple watch can be scratched by pure sapphire, but presumably it trades off some scratch resistance for greater impact resistance, though it's probably still more brittle than regular gorilla glass.

Technically, the Wikipedia article is called Aluminium oxynitride. Please don't tell the mod. This title (Transparent Aluminum) is more informative and also works as a Star Trek reference, which isn't a bad thing.

> This title is more informative

No, it is not. It is no more "transparent aluminium" than glass is a "transparent silicon".

I mean, thats more or less correct, though. It just isn't like, what we make interstellar spaceship chassis out of. But we might put it in windows of the ISS.

core memory unlocked! https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Transparisteel

How do you cut it, I wonder? Tile cutting saw? Water jet? Can it be scored and broken in a straight line like glass?

Yes. It's just like processing any other ceramic

Hello computer?

So, after yesterday's article on vacuum baloons, would this be a candidate for the hull material?

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