4 ms·
I actually had the opposite reaction. A few months ago, I was researching a project involving a counterweight, and the periodic table led me to tungsten on acc
by skohan 5y ago
I actually had the opposite reaction. A few months ago, I was researching a project involving a counterweight, and the periodic table led me to tungsten on account of its density. That was until I saw the price.
Ever since then I have been vaguely considering buying a tungsten cube as a curiosity. I am bemused to find that others on hacker news seem to have arrived at the same idea.
- kragen 5y agoTotally by coincidence, yesterday I was trying to plot out the cost/kg vs. density Pareto optimality curve. Construction sand is US$0.03/kg and 2.4 g/cc; magnetite is US$0.10/kg and about 5 g/cc (I don't have the notes in front of me); scrap steel is US$0.20/kg and 7.9 g/cc; scrap lead is US$0.95/kg and 11.3 g/cc or maybe a bit less; tungsten is US$30/kg and 19 g/cc; and osmium is US$13000/kg and 22.65 g/cc. I'm interested to know what I'm missing; is there anything denser than steel but cheaper than lead, for example, or denser than magnetite but cheaper than scrap steel? Is there tungsten carbide that's cheaper than tungsten? Mercury is denser than lead but doesn't have a well-defined market price any more and has certain disadvantages. Many mercury amalgams would be a better substitute in many circumstances, but they might impose high costs on you for reasons that come down to pure superstition.