13 Apr

What shear-thickening material is found in cars or is related to cars?

Author: admin  |  Category: Maintenance & Repairs
Dr. Evil asked:


A shear-thickening material is what you get when you mix cornstarch with water. It forms that colloid material. I need to find out what material in cars is shear thickening. Does anyone that knows a lot about cars know what part of the car is like this?
I just need to know this for biology class. It’s for extra credit.

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5 Responses to “What shear-thickening material is found in cars or is related to cars?”

  1. loonatic72 Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    around 18 gauge

  2. charger_sbee Says:
    April 18th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    for what purpose do you need this information?
    I will give you the answer for “One Milllllion Dollars”

  3. cunning linguist Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    The body structure of a car is designed to colapse during
    an accident and absorb the energy from the impact whilst
    leaving the passenger compartment fairly well intact.Shear
    thickening would not absorb the impact from a collision it
    would transfer it onto the next component.It might work on
    low speed impacts of maybe 2-3 mph though.

  4. paul h Says:
    April 20th, 2008 at 2:28 am

    I’m guessing it would be the bumper energy absorbers on some cars. It’s also used to produce liquid armor for bulletproof vests.

  5. guardian angel Says:
    April 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    My answer would be that the shocks would qualify because if you hit a small bump they react far less than they do if you hit a larger bump. therefore they react much like the cornstarch mixture in that if you slowly attempt to compress the material they allow you to and if you try to move it too much too fast they resist substantially more. Shocks can be either gas charged or hydraulic they both work the same way with baffles and wadding to slow the compression down

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