Discussion summary
Discussions highlight aluminum foil's unique properties and lack of everyday alternatives, with some humor about its name and applications.
What the discussion says
- Aluminum foil is valued for its thinness and versatility.
- Some mention the oxide layer formed on aluminum surface.
- Debate over the spelling 'aluminium' vs. 'aluminum'.
“It's aluminium foil.”
“Aluminum is always present in physics labs.”
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- Hacker News
- At my previous job we made >1m wide 8um thick copper foil by electroplating it onto a giant titanium drum from blue copper sulfate solution. It was quite impressive.by s0rce
- This was on S01E01 of How It's Made. Probably one of the best segments in the shows history.by t1234s
- Photographers and cinematographers are like: ohhh let me sit you down and tell you all about my love of blackwrap.
Aluminium foil is amazing stuff. Aluminium foil adhesive tape, in particular, is incredibly useful.
Being a multi-domain kind of geek the random tapes section of my tool drawers also contains mylar tape and fashion tape (or "tit tape" as a friend calls it) but the aluminium foil tape has proved to have many useful applications.
by dofm - I appreciated the paean to aluminum foil in Project Hail Mary where (spoilers) the hero uses it as bowling pins and to reproduce astrophage to eventually save two worlds. It's right up there in the pantheon of useful things with duct tape.by delichon
- >Robert Lang recommends laminating tissue paper on one or both sides of kitchen aluminum foil to make “tissue foil”, which for years he considered the ideal origami material.
The sculptor Kim Beaton likes to champion foil as a "metal clay" for sculpting. Keep it full of air pockets and it's easy to shape. You can use hot glue to put parts together, and then cover it in other clays for fine details and coloring. She does quick demos for tour groups at Weta Workshop in New Zealand.
by goda90 - It's non-toxic and food safe, and yet a significant number of people on the internet still act like it's poison that will give you Alzheimer's. I wonder how many of those people touch their lips to the lid of an aluminum beverage can. Or how they might bake a lasagna at home.by badc0ffee
- This made me wonder about a 3D printer alternative that builds things by folding a thin sheet of metal into arbitrary shapes instead of extruding filament.by 0-_-0
- I wasn't expecting to see Dernocua at the top of HN today with 53 comments. You can download Dernocua as a whole from http://canonical.org/~kragen/dernocua/ if you're interested.
I'm happy to answer any questions. (Well, almost any.)
by kragen