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[ArmokGoB]

1. It's exceptionally light
2. It has amazing cutting power
3. It's harvested in strands

[LMeire]

Adamantine/adamantium is just a stock fantasy metal like mythril or orichalcum, based on myths of "adamant" weapons. (Adamant being an old word for diamonds that probably refers to glass cutting tools in particular.)

Besides, nothing explainable by modern science could have the traits displayed by DF's perfect metal, it defies physics as we know them.

[ArmokGoB]

Adamantine/adamantium is just a stock fantasy metal like mythril or orichalcum, based on myths of "adamant" weapons. (Adamant being an old word for diamonds that probably refers to glass cutting tools in particular.)

Besides, nothing explainable by modern science could have the traits displayed by DF's perfect metal, it defies physics as we know them.

I know that adamantine is a "stock" fantasy metal. I've played my fair share of tabletop RPGs and Terraria.

I got this idea based on the monofilament fiber from cyberpunk universes, specifically Shadowrun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomolecular_wire

[Broseph Stalin]

I don't think so, it doesn't bend.

[EBannion]

I don't think so, it doesn't bend.

You can make cloth and clothes out of extracted strands. Pretty sure that means it does in fact bend.

[Putnam]

You can, but that doesn't mean it bends. The game is sorta nonsense now about materials. All STRAIN_AT_YIELD values for adamantine are 0, which means it does not bend, instead simply shattering at 5 GPa.

Of course, strain at yield is a derived dimensionless value calculated using the material's yield strength and its elastic modulus. Using compression as an example (for reasons that will become clear), COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD is equivalent to COMPRESSIVE_YIELD_pascals/K_pascals, where K is the bulk modulus of the material (and both are in pascals rather than their representation in-game). This is then converted to parts-per-100000 instead of a fraction for raw purposes. Anyway, we can derive from a COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD of 0 and COMPRESSIVE_YIELD of 5000000, we can get the equation for the bulk modulus 5000000000/K=0

Wait. Oh no. A/B=0, where A is a positive real number? I'm fairly sure that's, uh, not a thing.

Against all reason, let's pretend infinity's a number. That's our bulk modulus for adamantine. This implies a whole lotta stupid stuff. The speed of sound in a material is sqrt(K/d), where K is the bulk modulus and d is the density of the material. Having a very low density (0.1 g/cm³), the speed of sound of adamantine should be very fast. This doesn't really mean much when K is infinite, meaning the speed of sound is also infinite. This also implies that making instruments out of adamantine is a bad idea.

[NJW2000]

Why?

[Putnam]

Instruments work on vibration. Adamantine's vibrations are FTL.

Really, that sort of means it's a bad idea to make anything out of it. All movement propagates through sound waves.

You could make a light-year-long stick of adamantine then push it and the other end would push at the same time. That's pretty bad.

[NJW2000]

So they'd be inaudible? Or send extremely powerful, small shockwaves out? I'm not the best physicist...

[Putnam]

Heh, there's no way to actually make a prediction since the whole idea is nonsense and nonphysical to begin with.

It could always actually be finite and a rounding error. Best case scenario, it's 10,000,000,000,000 Pa, though that assumes you round down on 0.5, which is a dumb assumption since that's convention and not doing it that way is needlessly confusing, but then so is FTL travel. Anyway, with 10 TPa bulk modulus, adamantine has a speed of sound of 316,228 m/s, which is reasonably slow, being 1/1000 the speed of sound instead of above it. That's the minimum estimate on adamantine's bulk modulus; assuming the speed of light holds, it cannot be equal to or more than this, which is to say 8.987 EPa (exapascals).

[k33n]

Ive always assumed it was a sort of Kevlar-esque thing or carbon-y, either way I imagine my dwarfs looking vaguely sci-fi when in full candy.

[ArmokGoB]

Heh, there's no way to actually make a prediction since the whole idea is nonsense and nonphysical to begin with.

It could always actually be finite and a rounding error. Best case scenario, it's 10,000,000,000,000 Pa, though that assumes you round down on 0.5, which is a dumb assumption since that's convention and not doing it that way is needlessly confusing, but then so is FTL travel. Anyway, with 10 TPa bulk modulus, adamantine has a speed of sound of 316,228 m/s, which is reasonably slow, being 1/1000 the speed of sound instead of above it. That's the minimum estimate on adamantine's bulk modulus; assuming the speed of light holds, it cannot be equal to or more than this, which is to say 8.987 EPa (exapascals).

I guess the question now is: what would happen if Urist McBard had an adamantine trumpet and blew into it, where the value of K approaches 8.987 EPa?

[Putnam]

it would be LOUD AS SHIT, methinks, or at least more difficult to play.

[ArmokGoB]

Wait, I found it:

- The speed of sound in air is 343 m/s (1126 ft/s), in water is 1484 m/s, and in iron is 5120 m/s. According to my calculations, the speed of sound in adamantine is at least 63200 m/s, due to the high stiffness and low density. If adamantine is perfectly rigid, as shown by having 0 strain at fracture in the raw files, then the speed of sound in the metal approaches the speed of light. Adamantine musical instruments would produce ultrasonic vibrations, and cut off the fingers of the musician.

Brutal

[Amperzand]

On the other hand, if you used a massive steam engine to provide the pressure for blowing the candyhorn, and suspended it using magical magic magic, you'd have the best goddamn horn on the planet.