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246 points world2vec | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.439s | source
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mlhpdx ◴[] No.44357730[source]
It’s very odd to think of something extremely hot but with almost no density, and therefore very little heat transfer.
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kadoban ◴[] No.44358457[source]
Closer to home you can get similar things when you grind metals for instance. The sparks are at extremely high temperatures, but won't typically start fires or cause burns (it depends) because they're just too small to impart much actual energy to anything they touch.

You only get fire risks when the things they touch are themselves tiny (like dust), so they're unable to absorb and spread the heat.

A similar thing happens when you bake with tinfoil. The foil will be at like 350 F, but you can still touch it basically immediately if you're willing to gamble that nothing with thermal mass is stuck to it where you can't see. It just doesn't have enough thermal mass on its own to burn you, but if there's a good-sized glob of cheese or water or something on the other side you can really be in for a nasty surprise.

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hinkley ◴[] No.44361815[source]
Alec Steele (youtube blacksmith) installed a particulate filter into his grinding room before he branched off into exotic metals. He also started keeping his shop floor a lot cleaner.

Both because you probably shouldn't breathe that shit in, and also magnesium and titanium dust are very enthusiastic about combusting. Everyone knows about magnesium but nobody knows titanium is almost as surly.

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1. butlike ◴[] No.44369681[source]
So am I to understand we could theoretically make tempered magnesium swords that explode when struck?
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2. hinkley ◴[] No.44372888[source]
It’s a matter of surface area. You’d have to ask a chemist, this is far above my pay grade.