When looking up blogs about mechanical engineering on the internet, I came across a very interesting article entitled Aerogel | World’s Lightest Material | Aerogel Lighter Than Air | Aerogel Insulation from http://www.mechanicalengineeringblog.com/3458-aerogel-worlds-lightest-material-aerogel-lighter-than-air-aerogel-insulation/. This website has many interesting pieces but this one particular blog caught my attention because it has to do with the future of cars. The blog is mostly about a type of material called aerogel which weighs about the same as air. Also known as “frozen smoke, solid smoke or blue smoke due to its translucent nature and the way light scatters in the material ” ( Mechanicalengineeringblog.com sep29), aerogel is being experimented upon to solve many problems we encounter today.
Aerogel is a very special type of foam which is almost completely air, about 99.8% air. It is solid and can be held with your hands but is less dense than air. It was invented in the 1930s by Samuel Stephens Kistle but was not used much due to its brittle nature and the fact that it could not be shaped. Now with more experiments and technology we learned that “Aerogels posses the lowest density and highest internal surface area of any known solid material, which makes them extremely high performance material for collision, damping, acoustic and thermal insulation, structural support and surface chemistry” (Mechanicalengineerblog.com sep29). There was a type of aerogel created first called Silica aerogel but it is not nearly as strong as its new counterpart, in fact the new aerogel is 500 times stronger than the silica aerogel. Aerogel is also conductive and we can expect to see it being used to design new military vehicles and our everyday vehicle. With aerogel possessing so many properties many industrial and commercial users will start putting it in their products.
This post describes a new type of material that we will start to see being applied to our everyday technological devices. The new material is aerogel and it is very strong with the ability to withstand impact. Aerogel has extremely low density, very good thermal insulator, low dielectric constant, and a high specific surface area. This new discovery will have a huge impact in society because our cars and other motorized vehicles will become stronger and lighter at the same time.
Lastly, there is a great deal of benefit for myself in taking time to read a professional engineering blog. One main reason is it will help me better understand how to organize and write a blog professionally. From constantly reading them I will learn how to write them properly. There is also a greater purpose from reading these blogs. I will learn what new trend, technology, or research result comes out that can help me with my own inventions. I will be ahead of the game and have learned from a professional who could be doing what I want to be doing in life. Reading these blogs have nothing but positive impacts on myself.
