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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.wanted,net.misc
Subject: Re: Need to find that force redirecting material! Help!
Message-ID: <276@opus.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Dec-85 05:26:47 EST
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Posted: Tue Dec  3 05:26:47 1985
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>   I bet it was Zorbothane.  I think that's what they call it.  I saw the stuff
> demonstrated on TV a few years back.  Some guy put a raw egg between two
> 'sheets' of the stuff, took a sledge hammer and -- you guessed it.  No
> harm on the egg's part.  Then he did it with his hand.

The material is called Sorbothane.  It is used for various shock-absorbing
purposes, the most common (or at least the most visible) being pads for
shoes, especially for jogging, to absrob the shock of foot hitting
pavement.  I have also seen it used for turntable isolation.

If you want to get some to play with, buy some sole inserts--but don't go
betting an egg or your hand against a sledge (unless you have a LOT of it).
It's good, but it's not magic.

It doesn't redirect force so much as it deforms in an unusual way.  If you
whack the top of a piece of it, it transmits a lot of force downwards but
it also deforms outward a lot.  Imagine the local behavior of an element of
the stuff to be somewhat fluid-like in its transmission of the impact.
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Reality?  Gad, that's worse than puberty!