Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.indirect.com!seeker
From: seeker@indirect.com (Stan Eker)
Subject: Re: Musle wire?
Message-ID: <D2p2r9.9po@indirect.com>
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Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 08:11:33 GMT
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Steve Gillen (steve@phy-server) wrote:
:   I just watched an episode of a PBS series called " The New Explorers".
: It was a show about how Star Trek's Science fiction and real science fact
: have some correlation.  Anyhow, one part was about Lt Cmdr Data and a
: scientist was showing a water wheel being driven by what he called a 
: "musle wire".  Now I've read in this newsgroup (a while ago even) about
: some "nicro/niob/ni(something)" wire that could be stretched and would return
: to its original length when heated (something on those lines).  This wire
: has been around for a few years (more than 10 that I know of).  What 
: surprised me on the show was that the scientist said that this "musle" was
: 100 times more stong than a human musle!!  I don't remember hearing that
: about the old wire.  Is there some new stuff out there or did I just miss
: something about the old stuff.  I remember the stuff was slow unless you
: cooled it quickly.  The demo on the show had it turning a wheel by a crank.
: The wire was fully emersed in water.  Is this the same stuff?

Yes, it was, or a good imitation of it.  I saw the show and recognized it
(the Nitinol wire, that is).  The water tank obviously helped a lot to speed
it up, presuming it was water and not some esoteric supercooled fluid.
 
  __________________________________________________________________________
 |  Stan Eker            |                                                  |
 |  seeker@indirect.com  |      (this mind intentionally left blank)        |
 +-----------------------+                                                  |
