07.15.09 UCLA – Today I’m going to dedicate this whole blog to speculation on ferrofluids. According to dictionary.com the definition of ferrofluids “is a liquid which becomes strongly polarized in the presence of a magnetic field”. And this was exactly what we did today, we built ferrofluids. Not on a grand scale bu on a scale good enough to make more then the point of what this liquid substance was.
More into what it is: Ferrofluids are basically iron particals that are suspended in a liquid then added to somthing of a liquid or oil to keep them at bay but still with the ability move.
Why might i speculate that these particals coudl be useful? Well seals for first. The door could have some magnetic charging device which attracts the tiny particals and then a liquid seal of magnetic paricals is formed. And it should hold without a huge consumption of energy. Also it would serve as a great lubricant to parts of charged lubed mechanical peices. Becuase the lube would beable to keep with the joint without dripping or anything of the sort since it woudl be attracted to what it was applied to. As I read further into ferrofluids it seems they serve as hard drive lube. The military uses somthing of the sort to keep radar from sticking to their airplanes. In nasa it serves as an important role in judging the altitude.
Now Im not personaly sure how it serves in these tasks but it apparently works to a decent enough level that Nasa has adopted it along with the military to how it has enough potiental even at the moment. I would speculate that this magnetic gel/fluid has a big future actually if we can make it more powerful.
http://www.zuqka.com/kimandy/blog/tags/scientific-sht-you-will-never-knowunless-course-you-read-article
http://cnx.org/content/m15532/latest/
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/students/activities/makeferrofluids.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid
http://www.reference.com/browse/Ferrofluid