6 ms·

Tungsten cube was one of the best purchases I ever made.

by iaw 5y ago

User23 5y ago
My cube is actually a high tungsten carbide. I do happen to have a 1kg elemental tungsten cylinder though. I like to imagine dropping it from space on things that would be greatly improved by becoming a crater. At some point I’d like to obtain matching gold and uranium cylinders.
- loonster 5y ago
  57k for 1kg of gold... You have very expensive taste in simple objects. Getting that 1kg made into an statue is only a rounding error.
  - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
    I happened to be in a mayor’s jewelry store about 12 years ago when I saw someone walk in and purchase a gold paper clip for about $300 (want to say it was designer too, maybe Cartier). Never forget he looked raggedy as hell, he was wearing crocks, an inside out polo shirt with stains and some fishing shorts...when he took out his wallet it was held together by a rubber band, it was awesome.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      We can compare the view of expensive luxury stores in Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts attempts to walk into a top-end store and is summarily ejected by snotty staff) with the one in Breakfast at Tiffany's (staff are excruciatingly polite and bend over backwards to accommodate ridiculous requests from a guy who has already made it clear he doesn't have any money). People imagine the first mode, but the second one is much closer to reality.
      - colechristensen 5y ago
        It is people who are pretending to be or aspire to be rich who get snooty about appearances far more than people who are or actually cater to the wealthy.
        thaumasiotes 5y ago
        For the particular example, I'd think the scene in Pretty Woman is there purely for a particular storytelling reason -- the point is to illustrate how, if you suddenly become powerful, you can use that power to hurt people who were mean to you when you were small. So there's a scene where some people are abusive to Julia Roberts because the writer wants them to be, rather than for any in-world reason, so that she can come back later and take revenge. In Breakfast at Tiffany's, Tiffany's represents how Audrey Hepburn thinks about the world of the rich, and is shown in a more positive light.
      - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
        Well this was Miami, many jewelry stores you can’t even walk into but need to be buzzed in and I have seen on more than one occasion people not let in. This wasn’t one of those stores, but staff was more than accommodating, before purchasing the paper clip he made a rather odd request - he wanted to see the largest diamond in the store, they actually brought it out from the back (it wasn’t even in a display case). Maybe that is something the Uber rich do when they walk into a jewelry store to test service or quality of the merchandise or both.
  - ravi-delia 5y ago
    Oh but the delight of matching cylinders of pure metals? Priceless.
- japanuspus 5y ago
  At my university we had access to lead bricks (roughly 5x10x20 cm) used for radiation shielding at a small accelerator. One Friday evening it became at great idea to take one of those to the seventh floor and let it fall onto the lawn below. One of the most underwhelming experiences ever: there was hardly any indentation in the moist soil. Bullets go really fast. (I realize you said "drop from space" which would be a completely different matter of course, so I suspect you have realized this without experiments.)
- p1mrx 5y ago
  Tungsten is almost as dense as gold, at <1% the price. I don't think a gold cube/cylinder is a great idea, because it's easier to fake than coins.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    You can sort that issue out by getting in the bath with it.
    - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
      ... How? I mean, there are lots of ways to fake gold. At least one of these has some gold on the outside - which isn't going to simply wash off in the bathtub. And I'm guessing there are ways to make sure it sinks in water, as cheap and mid-grade jewelry tends to sink to the bottom too.
      - G4E 5y ago
        I think that was a wink to the classic story of Archimedes and the gold crown :) https://www.bellarmine.edu/learningcommunity/eureka/about/ https://www.bellarmine.edu/learningcommunity/eureka/about/
        hutzlibu 5y ago
        Yes, but that trick doesn't work so good when you use tungsten to fake gold, because they allmost got the same density. Thats also probably why the tungsten price recently went up together with the gold price, despite no significant increase in industrial demand for tungsten. Because thats how gold bars gets faked today.
      - colechristensen 5y ago
        It was a bit of a joke as you can use water displacement and weight to determine density. If you’re buying a brick of gold you buy it from someone licensed to sell it (you usually have to be) and the regulations and verifications involved are pretty trustworthy.
- Octopodes 5y ago
  Why do both of you own these cubes? Novelty?
riffraff 5y ago
What is special about a tungsten cube compare to any other metal cube?
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  It is very dense.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    Is that something you generally miss in your life, "really dense stuff"? Seems unlikely someone would justify "one of the best purchases I ever made" with "it's really dense". Or maybe I just don't see how something really dense could be useful except if you need something heavy but don't have a lot of space available.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      Awe. There is value to being surprised by things, and keeping things that can reliably surprise you.
    - hutzlibu 5y ago
      You can make very awesome things out tungsten or tungsten carbide. I think, I would like to have a cube as well, to be inspired by the potential of it ...
  - riffraff 5y ago
    ah, I see, it seems it's about the same weight as gold, in which case I can understand how it'd be an interesting object, thanks for answering.
klmadfejno 5y ago
Every day I hold my 1" tungsten cube, and cannot help but think... "I should have gotten a bigger cube".
hutzlibu 5y ago
Ok, I was now about to order one, where I found this Amazon recension, which I just have to share: Richard Behiel This Cube Cured my Mortality "All the people here who bought this wireless tungsten cube to admire its surreal heft have precisely the wrong mindset. I, in my exalted wisdom and unbridled ambition, bought this cube to become fully accustomed to the intensity of its density, to make its weight bearable and in fact normal to me, so that all the world around me may fade into a fluffy arena of gravitational inconsequence. And it has worked, to profound success. I have carried the tungsten with me, have grown attached to the downward pull of its small form, its desire to be one with the floor. This force has become so normal to me that lifting any other object now feels like lifting cotton candy, or a fluffy pillow. Big burly manly men who pump iron now seem to me as little children who raise mere aluminum. I can hardly remember the days before I became a man of tungsten. How distant those days seem now, how burdened by the apparent heaviness of everyday objects. I laugh at the philistines who still operate in a world devoid of tungsten, their shoulders thin and unempowered by the experience of bearing tungsten. Ha, what fools, blissful in their ignorance, anesthetized by their lack of meaningful struggle, devoid of passion. Nietzsche once said that a man who has a why can bear almost any how. But a man who has a tungsten cube can bear any object less dense, and all this talk of why and how becomes unnecessary. Schopenhauer once said that every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. Tungsten expands the limits of a man’s field of vision by showing him an example of increased density, in comparison to which the everyday objects to which he was formerly accustomed gain a light and airy quality. Who can lament the tragedy of life, when surrounded by such lightweight objects? Who can cry in a world of styrofoam and cushions? Have you yet understood? This is no ordinary metal. In this metal is the alchemical potential to transform your world, by transforming your expectations. Those who have not yet held the cube in their hands and mouths will not understand, for they still live in a world of normal density, like Plato’s cave dwellers. Those who have opened their mind to the density of tungsten will shift their expectations of weight and density accordingly. To give this cube a rating of anything less than five stars would be to condemn life itself. Who am I, as a mere mortal, to judge the most compact of all affordable materials? No. I say gratefully to whichever grand being may have created this universe: good job on the tungsten. It sure is dense. I sit here with my tungsten cube, transcendent above death itself. For insofar as this tungsten cube will last forever, I am in the presence of immortality. "

Tungsten cube was one of the best purchases I ever made.

by iaw 5y ago

Tungsten cube was one of the best purchases I ever made.

My cube is actually a high tungsten carbide. I do happen to have a 1kg elemental tungsten cylinder though. I like to imagine dropping it from space on things that would be greatly improved by becoming a crater. At some point I’d like to obtain matching gold and uranium cylinders.

loonster 5y ago
57k for 1kg of gold... You have very expensive taste in simple objects. Getting that 1kg made into an statue is only a rounding error.
- throwaway_kufu 5y ago
  I happened to be in a mayor’s jewelry store about 12 years ago when I saw someone walk in and purchase a gold paper clip for about $300 (want to say it was designer too, maybe Cartier). Never forget he looked raggedy as hell, he was wearing crocks, an inside out polo shirt with stains and some fishing shorts...when he took out his wallet it was held together by a rubber band, it was awesome.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    We can compare the view of expensive luxury stores in Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts attempts to walk into a top-end store and is summarily ejected by snotty staff) with the one in Breakfast at Tiffany's (staff are excruciatingly polite and bend over backwards to accommodate ridiculous requests from a guy who has already made it clear he doesn't have any money). People imagine the first mode, but the second one is much closer to reality.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      It is people who are pretending to be or aspire to be rich who get snooty about appearances far more than people who are or actually cater to the wealthy.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        For the particular example, I'd think the scene in Pretty Woman is there purely for a particular storytelling reason -- the point is to illustrate how, if you suddenly become powerful, you can use that power to hurt people who were mean to you when you were small. So there's a scene where some people are abusive to Julia Roberts because the writer wants them to be, rather than for any in-world reason, so that she can come back later and take revenge. In Breakfast at Tiffany's, Tiffany's represents how Audrey Hepburn thinks about the world of the rich, and is shown in a more positive light.
    - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
      Well this was Miami, many jewelry stores you can’t even walk into but need to be buzzed in and I have seen on more than one occasion people not let in. This wasn’t one of those stores, but staff was more than accommodating, before purchasing the paper clip he made a rather odd request - he wanted to see the largest diamond in the store, they actually brought it out from the back (it wasn’t even in a display case). Maybe that is something the Uber rich do when they walk into a jewelry store to test service or quality of the merchandise or both.
- ravi-delia 5y ago
  Oh but the delight of matching cylinders of pure metals? Priceless.
japanuspus 5y ago
At my university we had access to lead bricks (roughly 5x10x20 cm) used for radiation shielding at a small accelerator. One Friday evening it became at great idea to take one of those to the seventh floor and let it fall onto the lawn below. One of the most underwhelming experiences ever: there was hardly any indentation in the moist soil. Bullets go really fast. (I realize you said "drop from space" which would be a completely different matter of course, so I suspect you have realized this without experiments.)
p1mrx 5y ago
Tungsten is almost as dense as gold, at <1% the price. I don't think a gold cube/cylinder is a great idea, because it's easier to fake than coins.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  You can sort that issue out by getting in the bath with it.
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    ... How? I mean, there are lots of ways to fake gold. At least one of these has some gold on the outside - which isn't going to simply wash off in the bathtub. And I'm guessing there are ways to make sure it sinks in water, as cheap and mid-grade jewelry tends to sink to the bottom too.
    - G4E 5y ago
      I think that was a wink to the classic story of Archimedes and the gold crown :) https://www.bellarmine.edu/learningcommunity/eureka/about/ https://www.bellarmine.edu/learningcommunity/eureka/about/
      - hutzlibu 5y ago
        Yes, but that trick doesn't work so good when you use tungsten to fake gold, because they allmost got the same density. Thats also probably why the tungsten price recently went up together with the gold price, despite no significant increase in industrial demand for tungsten. Because thats how gold bars gets faked today.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      It was a bit of a joke as you can use water displacement and weight to determine density. If you’re buying a brick of gold you buy it from someone licensed to sell it (you usually have to be) and the regulations and verifications involved are pretty trustworthy.
Octopodes 5y ago
Why do both of you own these cubes? Novelty?

riffraff 5y ago

What is special about a tungsten cube compare to any other metal cube?

hutzlibu 5y ago
It is very dense.
- capableweb 5y ago
  Is that something you generally miss in your life, "really dense stuff"? Seems unlikely someone would justify "one of the best purchases I ever made" with "it's really dense". Or maybe I just don't see how something really dense could be useful except if you need something heavy but don't have a lot of space available.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    Awe. There is value to being surprised by things, and keeping things that can reliably surprise you.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    You can make very awesome things out tungsten or tungsten carbide. I think, I would like to have a cube as well, to be inspired by the potential of it ...
- riffraff 5y ago
  ah, I see, it seems it's about the same weight as gold, in which case I can understand how it'd be an interesting object, thanks for answering.

klmadfejno 5y ago

Every day I hold my 1" tungsten cube, and cannot help but think... "I should have gotten a bigger cube".

hutzlibu 5y ago

Ok, I was now about to order one, where I found this Amazon recension, which I just have to share: Richard Behiel This Cube Cured my Mortality "All the people here who bought this wireless tungsten cube to admire its surreal heft have precisely the wrong mindset. I, in my exalted wisdom and unbridled ambition, bought this cube to become fully accustomed to the intensity of its density, to make its weight bearable and in fact normal to me, so that all the world around me may fade into a fluffy arena of gravitational inconsequence. And it has worked, to profound success. I have carried the tungsten with me, have grown attached to the downward pull of its small form, its desire to be one with the floor. This force has become so normal to me that lifting any other object now feels like lifting cotton candy, or a fluffy pillow. Big burly manly men who pump iron now seem to me as little children who raise mere aluminum. I can hardly remember the days before I became a man of tungsten. How distant those days seem now, how burdened by the apparent heaviness of everyday objects. I laugh at the philistines who still operate in a world devoid of tungsten, their shoulders thin and unempowered by the experience of bearing tungsten. Ha, what fools, blissful in their ignorance, anesthetized by their lack of meaningful struggle, devoid of passion. Nietzsche once said that a man who has a why can bear almost any how. But a man who has a tungsten cube can bear any object less dense, and all this talk of why and how becomes unnecessary. Schopenhauer once said that every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. Tungsten expands the limits of a man’s field of vision by showing him an example of increased density, in comparison to which the everyday objects to which he was formerly accustomed gain a light and airy quality. Who can lament the tragedy of life, when surrounded by such lightweight objects? Who can cry in a world of styrofoam and cushions? Have you yet understood? This is no ordinary metal. In this metal is the alchemical potential to transform your world, by transforming your expectations. Those who have not yet held the cube in their hands and mouths will not understand, for they still live in a world of normal density, like Plato’s cave dwellers. Those who have opened their mind to the density of tungsten will shift their expectations of weight and density accordingly. To give this cube a rating of anything less than five stars would be to condemn life itself. Who am I, as a mere mortal, to judge the most compact of all affordable materials? No. I say gratefully to whichever grand being may have created this universe: good job on the tungsten. It sure is dense. I sit here with my tungsten cube, transcendent above death itself. For insofar as this tungsten cube will last forever, I am in the presence of immortality. "