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> What is the common denominator between all metals? I think most people who study this would say the common denominator is that metals lack a band gap and hav

> What is the common denominator between all metals? I think most people who study this would say the common denominator is that metals lack a band gap and have a very mobile sea of electrons, and therefore good conductivity. Metals can be amorphous, or crystalline, or anywhere along the spectrum. The "new school" certainly hasn't forgotten, or ignored, that crystals are patterns that tile all of space. These are known as space groups, and they enumerate every way to tile 3D space symmetrically (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_group). Anyways, I can guarantee that people who really study the subject absolutely take courses in metallurgy, crystallography, 3D math, and much more. Also, if you're interested in simulations, I don't do that much myself, but you can always run some open source simulation software. http://www.opencalphad.com/ http://www.opencalphad.com/

peter_d_sherman 6y ago
That looks like an interesting link, I might check that out! Also... "Amorphous" -- is just another way of saying that the crystal patterns contain shorter runs within the whole of the material... in other words, you can have differing crystal patterns which take up smaller amounts of space -- than the whole of the structure... That sort of brings us to Level 2... Level 2 is not just understanding metals as crystals, but (potentially) as crystals containing runs of various crystal structures, which could be the same crystal pattern, and could be different crystal patterns -- interrupted by fractures. That brings us to Level 3: Level 3 is sort of understanding Crystals -- as Fractals, that is, as "nested containers", that is, crystals themselves -- may contain one or more repeating patterns much in the same way that the larger structure contains one or more repeating groups of crystals... Anyway, my point is, there's a lot more research to be done here... that and certain words like "amorphous" can unintentionally obscure the deeper pattern... or broken patterns, as the case can be... Level 4 understanding: Broken patterns -- are indeed broken at one level(!) -- but they can be part of a "higher order" (unseen) pattern... a higher-order "pattern-breaker pattern". Which should be discoverable using higher-order (higher dimensionality) math... As I said... more research needs to be done here...
- tcpekin 6y ago
  I can also recommend looking into voroni clusters for amorphous glasses, as a level 3 type analysis. These can be combined into higher order "medium range order" clusters, which might be what call level 4, but these are all very interesting areas of research.

peter_d_sherman 6y ago

That looks like an interesting link, I might check that out! Also... "Amorphous" -- is just another way of saying that the crystal patterns contain shorter runs within the whole of the material... in other words, you can have differing crystal patterns which take up smaller amounts of space -- than the whole of the structure... That sort of brings us to Level 2... Level 2 is not just understanding metals as crystals, but (potentially) as crystals containing runs of various crystal structures, which could be the same crystal pattern, and could be different crystal patterns -- interrupted by fractures. That brings us to Level 3: Level 3 is sort of understanding Crystals -- as Fractals, that is, as "nested containers", that is, crystals themselves -- may contain one or more repeating patterns much in the same way that the larger structure contains one or more repeating groups of crystals... Anyway, my point is, there's a lot more research to be done here... that and certain words like "amorphous" can unintentionally obscure the deeper pattern... or broken patterns, as the case can be... Level 4 understanding: Broken patterns -- are indeed broken at one level(!) -- but they can be part of a "higher order" (unseen) pattern... a higher-order "pattern-breaker pattern". Which should be discoverable using higher-order (higher dimensionality) math... As I said... more research needs to be done here...

tcpekin 6y ago
I can also recommend looking into voroni clusters for amorphous glasses, as a level 3 type analysis. These can be combined into higher order "medium range order" clusters, which might be what call level 4, but these are all very interesting areas of research.