From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Tue Mar 07 2000 - 17:30:33 MST
Spike Jones wrote:
> Stirling Westrup wrote:
>
> I beg to differ, Stirling. The steel foam would lose tensile strength in
> proportion to its density. Since it doesnt matter the volume of the space
> cable, there is no preference between steel and aluminum for instance.
> Aluminum is approximately a third the density of steel but its tensile
> strength is also about a third. I shall wait to post this until I see if
> Doug Jones has already jumped on this. {8^D
I contend that all else being equal volume DOES matter, due to sheer
difficulties involved in working with 200 km wide cables (as an extreme
example). Put it this way, if you consider the set of possible
construction materials that all have the same tensile strength per unit
mass, your method will preferentially select the one with the lowest
density, and thus the greatest volume. This seems wrong to me.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
| endorsement of Western Technological
| Civilization or its appurtenances.
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