[time-nuts] Thermal time constant

[Neville Michie]

Just in case anyone finds a beryllium brick somewhere and tries to  
use it:
Beryllium is very very poisonous.
cheers,
Neville Michie

On 11/03/2010, at 10:08 AM, Bruce Griffiths wrote:

> phil at pseng.org.uk wrote:
>> Looking at the specific heat of metals:
>> http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-heat-metals-d_152.html
>> Wouldn't Beryllium be better instead of aluminium?
>> I could foresee a few problems though eg machining holes at home,  
>> never mind where to get a block from.
>>
>> Phil
>>
> Actually in this application minimising the volume of the metal  
> block rather than its weight is probably better so one should use  
> specific heat*density as a figure of merit.
>
> METAL            Specific heat*density (W/J/cubic cm)
> Aluminium         2.46
>
> Beryllium            3.29
>
> Copper               3.49
>
> Silver                  2.41
>
> Iron                    3.87
>
> Thus copper and iron are better choices than Beryllium they also  
> poses fewer machining diffculties
>
> Bruce
>
>
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