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Scientists Create New Material Five Times Lighter and Four Times Stronger Than Steel (scitechdaily.com)

submitted 1 year ago by frogman to c/science

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"Researchers have developed a highly robust material with an extremely low density by constructing a structure using DNA and subsequently coating it in glass."

“I am a big fan of Iron Man movies, and I have always wondered how to create a better armor for Iron Man. It must be very light for him to fly faster. It must be very strong to protect him from enemies’ attacks. Our new material is five times lighter but four times stronger than steel. So, our glass nanolattices would be much better than any other structural materials to create an improved armor for Iron Man.”

im just glad someone is doing the real research

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[–] mistersheep 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're right that we have precise ways to say this, but people like seeing bigger numbers rather than smaller ones, and most people aren't "precise" about anything.

Consider something that weighs half as much. It's 50% lighter ... 0.5 times lighter.

It's a relative metric, not an absolute one. And since they're using the word "lighter" (i.e. less massive) it means that they're talking about the reciprocal of mass.

I.e. 1/5 the mass = 5 times "lighter"

If something is 50% the mass of something else, you could say the the heavier one is twice as heavy as the light one. Which means that the light one is two times "lighter" than the heavy one.

But I agree with your sentiment, relative comparisons of reciprocals is confusing at the best of times.

[–] efrique@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

It's not the word "lighter" that's the issue, it's the word "less". If I say something weighs 80% less, ... you know how much that is. 100% less, it weighs even less -- nothing at all. 500% less (i.e. 5 times less), suddenly it weighs more?