Dale.Amon@H.CS.CMU.EDU (11/01/86)
Mr. Allen: The injection of a mathematical reality into a discussion is useful. The injection of ad hominum attacks is not. REM: I would suggest trying Mr. Allen's equations with different types of materials. Steel is very very far from optimum in strength. First, look into glasses, since they tend to get stronger under symmetric compressive loads. Just for interest, one might want to see if pure diamond, or if some exotic materials might be useful. Things like glassy metals, single crystal metals, and such. I haven't the time to research it, but I'd love to see the results. After all, with a material as primitive as steel, the equation ONLY fails by two orders of magnitude... Other than glass, this would make it useless in the manner discussed, but it is still a fascinating idea. I, for one, am happy to see a few creative minds on this digest.