materials and uses

[prepare]

hi

im doing a presentation for AS advancing physics as part of my coursework the presentation is about a material with a particular use and must have other uses

so this material must be intersting, have a particular use (where there are other materials available for that same use that are not used), and importantly it must be relatively easy to research on (so no top secret stuff)

ive been thinkin about this but havent come up with much and would welcome/need suggestions for a material/

thnks

[Buenchico]

Try a web search for 'bucky balls'. (Material = Carbon-60. Uses: Too many to list!).

Chris

[prepare]

thnks for the answer

keep the suggestions coming as i research this one but plz consider that the properties that make the material suitaible for its use must include things like stress, strain, youngs modulus, refractive index, bascially AS level physics terms

thnmks

in advance

[prepare]

from what i have read so far it seems that bucker balls are for the future and have no solid uses yet Buenchico

do you oranyone have other suggestions????

[bobjim1705]

Carbon Nanotubes perhaps? Any material with the word 'nano' in it is bound to be pretty interesting from a science point of view.

As a side note, Bucky Balls are used pretty intensively in material analysis (specifically, ToF-SIMS - Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy.)

[prepare]

i know i said interesting but not too complicated i only just started AS level physics

thnks 4 the answer bob i will look into it

[fo3nix]

why not just titanium?

lots and lots of uses (fighter jets to name one), used instead of aluminium for its properties. strength, lightness, thermal properties...

[Buenchico]

How about glass? It can be incredibly fragile or completely bulletproof and its optical properties mean that it's used in everything from telescopes to fibre optic cables. This might be a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass

Chris

[spaced]

you could list all the different types of polymers (plastic) and state which are used for what and reasons why. for eg ABS is used for car bumpers etc etc

[Dagman]

How about Teflon. Or PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene).

[prepare]

Could you give more info on teflon I'm find it hard to find out about it.