{"id":51401,"date":"2015-06-08T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T18:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/08\/okay-this-is-the-weirdest-coolest-thing-ive-seen-today.html"},"modified":"2015-06-08T12:25:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T18:25:11","slug":"okay-this-is-the-weirdest-coolest-thing-ive-seen-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/08\/okay-this-is-the-weirdest-coolest-thing-ive-seen-today.html","title":{"rendered":"Okay, this is the weirdest \/ coolest thing I've seen today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrofluids. Brilliant. I had no idea these were a thing.<\/p>\n

Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Ferrofluids are liquids that become magnetized when a magnetic field is applied. They're made by suspending nanoparticles (particles only a few nanometers — tens of atoms — across) of magnetic materials, each coated with a substance that keeps it from clumping, in an organic solvent. When magnetized, they tend to form characteristic "hedgehog" shapes.<\/p>\n

These were originally invented for rocket fuel: the idea was to mix these directly into liquid fuel, so that a magnetic field could pull them straight into the engine. That eliminates the mechanical pumps that are at the heart of liquid-fueled rockets, which (especially then) were the #1 source of problems. Today, they're used for all sorts of other applications: for example, they're used to create hermetic seals around rotating drive shafts, like the ones in your hard disk, since if you just magnetize the shaft a bit they'll stay in place even as things spin around. Using similar tricks, they're what keep the voice coils of your speaker cool.<\/p>\n

Basically, you can find ferrofluids anywhere that it would be really useful to hold some liquid in a strange position as if by magic. <\/p>\n

And here is what happens if you take a screw, apply a magnetic field to it, and pour a ferrofluid down the top. It both lubricates the screw very precisely, and looks really neat.<\/p>\n

You can learn more at http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ferrofluid<\/a> .<\/p>\n

This image comes from http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/interestingasfuck\/comments\/391q8w\/ferrofluid_on_a_screw\/<\/a> , and via +<\/span>Kimberly Chapman<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ferrofluids. Brilliant. I had no idea these were a thing. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: Ferrofluids are liquids that become magnetized when a magnetic field is applied. They're made by suspending nanoparticles (particles only a few nanometers — tens of atoms — across) of magnetic materials, each coated with a substance that keeps it from … Continue reading “Okay, this is the weirdest \/ coolest thing I've seen today”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-51401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","tag-124"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/ferrofluid.gifimgmax=660.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132159,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/04\/martian-war-machines.html","url_meta":{"origin":51401,"position":0},"title":"Martian War Machines","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Dec-16 7:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I dearly love the Albert Nozaki design for the war machines in George Pal's 1953 The War of the Worlds. 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