Clever people make cool stuff alert

[doodab]

BBC News - World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers

A team of engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material.

The substance is made out of tiny hollow metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice - a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between the tubes.

The researchers say the material is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and has "extraordinarily high energy absorption" properties.

[Mich the Tester]

BBC News - World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers

Oi, stop posting clever stuff around here. Nobody ever got rich by making useful stuff, cretin!

[TimberWolf]

The resulting material has a density of 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimetre.

So at 0.9 kg/m^3 is lighter than air at 1.275 kg/m3. And so it floats, at sea level?

The metallic micro-lattices have the edge because they consist of 99.99% air and of 0.01% solids.

In which case it'd have about the same density as air. wtf.

Aerogels look like smoke, so goodness knows what this stuff looks like.

[scooterscot]

So at 0.9 kg/m^3 is lighter than air at 1.275 kg/m3. And so it floats, at sea level?

Is this akin to, which is heavier 1kg of sugar or 1kg of feathers?

[TimberWolf]

Is this akin to, which is heavier 1kg of sugar or 1kg of feathers?

Either a reporting error or the 'tiny hollow metallic tubes' are evaluated of air + reporting error.

[TimberWolf]

Sounds like the source said :

"The lattice is 99.99 percent open volume," Schaedler said
World's Lightest Solid Takes Inspiration From Eiffel Tower | Lightest Solid Is Less Dense Than Air | Frozen Smoke & Aerogels | LiveScience

(not 99.99% air as reported) which at least makes sense, though there's no mention of whether the 'open volume' was vacuum or filled with a gas less dense than air.