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On a completely separate note, what was the deal with the need for transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV? Looking at the footage, they easily could have made th
by jboy55 9y ago
On a completely separate note, what was the deal with the need for transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV?
Looking at the footage, they easily could have made the tank bigger if they just used all of the space available and didn't need to be able to "see" them from outside their tank. All they would have needed the aluminum for is to keep water out of where water shouldn't go and regular aluminum (or other material) would have worked just as well.
- melling 9y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/3luo7c/in_star_trek_iv_why_did_scotty_have_to_invent/?sort=confidence https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/3luo7c/in_star_tr...
- JoeAltmaier 9y agoMaybe its stronger than regular
- s0rce 9y agoAluminum corrodes a bit in sea water although it didn't need to last that long.
- mohaine 9y agoI don't think they used transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV. I thought they paid for whatever they used (plexiglass?) with the recipe for transparent aluminum. Although it could just be that I'm forgiving the poor writing.
- ASalazarMX 9y agoThis. They didn't have money, so they bartered with information.
- emaginniss 9y agoWouldn't that mean that nobody ever invented it?
- delecti 9y agoNo humans maybe. And if humans were in fact the source of Starfleet's knowledge of transparent aluminum then it'd be an instance of a causal loop, of which there are many examples in fiction.
- Izkata 9y ago> of which there are many examples in fiction. Hell, there's several examples just in Star Trek.
- msumpter 9y agoI believe the story was the person who invented transparent aluminum was the man they approached and just gave him the idea sooner (or maybe this is how he always came up with it, timelines can be funny)
- jboy55 9y agoYes, it seems that way from the script. But then, why a transparent material? (The answer of course is they're building an aquarium tank, and aquarium tanks are see through or have windows into it so humans can spectate. If they wanted to just bring whales back, they probably would have just flooded some crew room.)
- perl4ever 9y agoBecause a company that sells transparent materials like plexiglass can see the use of an innovative formula for a new transparent material. It seems logical to me - it just had nothing directly to do with their whale-transporting plans.
- friedegg 9y agoIt's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I don't think they specifically needed transparent aluminum, but it's how Scotty paid for them getting what they needed. They didn't have money to pay for it, so this was a barter, the knowledge of how to make it for making them some.