This is apparently more black than vantablack. I have no need for this but I kind of want to buy some to paint a ball and finally see what it’s like
It’s basically asbestos. Vantablack is the posterboy for nanotoxicity thanks to the carbon nanotubes.
That’s why the manufacturer licensed it to a single artist in the beginning - it has to be used in a lab environment with proper handling and ventilation.
Edit: People are quoting 99.95% for Black 4.0 which is impressive!
Curious, under what circumstances will this 0.365% be practically important?
The difference is 0.4 to 0.035
An order of magnitude more light reflected.
These blacks are "black" in that they absorb visible light. How or if they absorb IR light (the bulk of heat energy) is a different story. They may be totally reflective in IR. But yes, something that is more black in visible light is probably also more black in IR. But also remember that black objects are also better at emitting IR.
I remember being told that white objects reflect heat, which is why white clothes and white buildings are better in hot, sunny locations. I thought the reverse would be true for black. Thanks for educating me!
For example our hearing range is 20-20000 Hz, yet we can perceive a 20 Hz sound as different from a 40 Hz one, the difference between them being 20 Hz which is 0.1% of our hearing range.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/824109424255434803/88...
Seems there is a lot to go beyond 99.6%
I don't know what the absorption value of the black velvet is though. I am curious how Black 4.0 would compare to black velvet.
Essentially the surface is a physical light trap.
You can get that weird feel by walking around an indoor space with only one eye open. When I do that, it feels as though all the (varied) colors I see are flat paint strokes lying on some flat surface at some undefined distance from me (as if my perception was stripped of all distance content). I become comically bad at simple tasks like reaching for the door handle or the light switch. When I use my hands to touch the wall it feels like I'm touching something that I'm not seeing (even though I'm looking right at it!)
There are plenty of people who don't have binocular vision, who learn to rely on other signals for 3D.
See the cues at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception for some other cues that you may use.
If I'm pulled out suddenly to attend to something totally unrelated, I'll often be distracted by appreciating just how altered my senses are until they reacclimatize to "normal."