Talk:2829: Iceberg Efficiency

BH clearly isn't Freudian. For the Iceberg of the Mind, the most important part is the 90% of it that is hidden. Which makes for a totally different (and potentially more implementable) solution whenever you happen to consider that the most important function of an iceberg is to sneak up on ships... ;) 172.71.178.68 13:26, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

i added a transcript hopefully it isn't horrible Me^{[citation needed]} 13:47, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Tweaked (slightly, to personal descriptive tastes), but definitely not horrible. 172.70.86.7 14:07, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Does anyone have knowledge of aerogels being infused with helium? I'm assuming it wouldn't be too outlandish to do so, but honestly don't have a lot of experience with them. Fifteen12 (talk) 14:39, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

It'd be complex. Most are 'open cell', so need an external coating. Or "pockets of helium" could mean small helium-filled ballonettes embedded within aerogel; being uniformly externally supported by the aerogel, these pockets could be structurally less bulky than traditional bladders of lift-gas (still need to be impermeable, but without the inflate-stretching of rubber, can be a more 'delicate but efficient' material, perhaps graphene). You could (also?) coat the outside of the aerogel, but adding an arbitrarily large envelope of such a membrane around helium-infused aerogel and then adding more (normally aerated) aerogel onto the outside as additional buffer/structural precaution might be wise(r), as you go ship-hunting... 141.101.98.61 15:22, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

It seems ChatGPT was use to write the description text? The contributor share in on XKCD's euphoria channel: https://chat.openai.com/share/02006f2e-cca5-4518-8fb4-f9176b39512e 188.114.111.117 16:04, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

What aerogel would break down in water? From what I've seen, I thought most aerogel was made of silica? (There's actually no gel left in an aerogel; the gel is replaced by gases.) Is this an error produced by ChatGPT? Since my searches just now have turned up no mention of aerogel being made water soluble, I'm removing that statement for now; if someone has a citation supporting it, we could add it back in? ProphetZarquon (talk) 20:28, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a section on waterproofing aerogels which talks about "hyrodoxyl groups...causing [the aerogel] to catastrophically dissolve in the water". However, the source it cites clarifies that this is only for aerogels made with a certain process. Other aerogels can be easily made that invert the hydrodoxyl groups and prevent structural breakdown, resulting in hydrophobic aerogels. I presume Black Hat would be smart enough to get his chemistry right. I agree with removing that part.Fifteen12 (talk) 01:20, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Why not filling the aerogel with hydrogen? You might save for torpedoes then. -- Hkmaly (talk) 21:24, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

"God himself couldn't sink this ship." That's just giving Murphy a temptation far too great to resist. Naval architect Thomas Andrews, the leader of the Titanic's design team, knew exactly how much damage his ship could sustain and stay afloat, and he knew that the damage inflicted by the iceberg was too great to sustain. He did not survive the sinking. 172.69.33.82 22:12, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Wouldn't helium be a better choice for the low-mass pursuit iceberg? Not only is hydrogen even lighter than helium, it can combust when exposed to heat and oxygen, making the limited kinetic energy of a collision less relevant. GreatWyrmGold (talk) 14:28, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Assume you meant "Wouldn't hydrogen be a better choice...", from context/rest of your argument. In which case, pperhaps a floating(-in-air!) iceberg that attacks just the one ship is considered less efficient than one which can (potentially) attack several..? 172.70.85.205 15:31, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

An hydrogen-filled "airberg" would also be easier to dispatch by firing at it remotely, igniting the hydrogen. An helium one wouldn't have that weakness. Black Hat would have anticipated this. Ralfoide (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Since an _iceberg_ is made of ice, how would be called an helium-filled one? "hellberg"? I posit that the generic term would be an "airberg". Ralfoide (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2023 (UTC)