Ultimate heatsink and thermal material?

MTA99 said:
We agree that its an insulator but I don't agree that the tile isn't at an elevated temperature. If you soak a tile for long enough in the furnace it will reach 1000°C+
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I see.

I think we have seen similar but different demos (and I confused the two). I saw one where a panel was heated with a blow torch, and yet immediatly afterwards it was cool to the touch.

Handling a 'glowing cold' material must have been quite an experience :)
 
If the blow torch was used for a minute or two then very little heat would be transferred to the tile and it would be cool enough to touch. A blow torch flame can be fairly "low temperature" depending on the gases used (and the mix).

I was a little worried when the furnace door was opened with heat proof gloves then a huge pair of tongs were used to fish the cube out ;) The cube might not transfer much heat to your hand but 1300°C air to the face isn't going to be pretty!
 
melbourne720 said:
Not to be a pedant but...

The heat shield on the space shuttle would be an insulator. It doesn't cool down because it never got hot in the first place. It may have been in a kiln at 3000 degrees, but that doesn't mean it itself was at that temperature. If it did conduct all that energy, where did it go?
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I see your point but the whole point about this "amazing fact" is that the block actually was AT 3000... not just the kiln, it was heated to that temperature. The idea they tried to get across was it was a beastly conductor :S maybe I confused it in which case apologies, I did go and get a sandwich half way through the scene anyway
 
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ok I've read and re read... the thing is the programme states it cools down in a matter of seconds... don't ask me how it doesn't conduct this to the shuttle but the programme implicitly states that the shield was heated to that temperature and cooled down in a matter of seconds, it didn't insulate all of that heat. I dunno, this wasn't the most serious of posts in the first place so don't flame me for what a programme told me. I understand that if it's a beast at conducting, surely that will just conduct it to the shuttle itself, but the programme goes against it. An insulator wouldn't cool down in a matter of seconds... ah bah humbug to it, I'll stick to good old aluminum and copper =D
 
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jambus said:
ok I've read and re read... the thing is the programme states it cools down in a matter of seconds... don't ask me how it doesn't conduct this to the shuttle but the programme implicitly states that the shield was heated to that temperature and cooled down in a matter of seconds, it didn't insulate all of that heat. I dunno, this wasn't the most serious of posts in the first place so don't flame me for what a programme told me. I understand that if it's a beast at conducting, surely that will just conduct it to the shuttle itself, but the programme goes against it. An insulator wouldn't cool down in a matter of seconds... ah bah humbug to it, I'll stick to good old aluminum and copper =D
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Don't feel bad man - I'd never have known about carbon nanotubes if it hadn't been for this thread. I suspect however they only conduct heat ballistically in one direction - i.e. you need lots of them lined up to get it to work. Diamond is the best right now I think, non-conductive (well most are) too!
 
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