Shiny metal

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:19 pm

Every once in a while we need a "puzzle piece".

This image seems to fit the role.

Any thoughts on what this is, and how it came to be?

--Rik

g4lab · Post by **g4lab** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:15 pm

Tungsten Filament??

augusthouse · Post by **augusthouse** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:38 pm

It's gorgeous, whatever it is!

What is it and how did come to be in this state - or come to be? hmmm...

Hint - please. Is that molten, metallic appearence part of the object or is it a result of reflection?

Ice on a fork?

Craig

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:46 pm

Everything you're looking at is shiny metal. The environment that's being reflected is a simple pattern of diffusers.

What appear to be complex shapes, really are complex shapes.

For what it's worth, the appearance at this scale looks nothing at all like what I expected based on observation by eye.

It also doesn't look much like most other pictures that I find by searching Google!

--Rik

nto · Post by **nto** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:09 am

perhaps this is the pond, cooled air? however pleasant and light gray!

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:54 am

My first thought was a liquid of some kind, once when I tried shooting water coming out of a tap with flash it looked not dissimilar to this, but that's been excluded, so I'm truly puzzled!

It has a slightly crystalline look, but if it's metal I suppose that's hardly surprising...

A scale bar might help make the guesses a bit better!

I suppose by deduction if this is metal then we're looking at very thin wires of some kind. Have you deliberately de-coloured this image to confuse us or is this natural colour?

Hairs on a wire brush, fine strands of woven copper shielding?

Jbailey · Post by **Jbailey** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:54 am

Could this be parts from an old electric shaver?

Jim

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:12 am

lauriek wrote:A scale bar might help make the guesses a bit better!

Now Laurie, you know I mostly do small stuff.

The first image is 0.92 mm x 0.78 mm. You're looking at a crop from a 34-frame stack shot through my usual 10X objective, focus increment 0.0005".

Have you deliberately de-coloured this image to confuse us or is this natural colour?

The color is pretty close to natural. I did de-color the final image, but only to remove some CA fringes in out-of-focus regions. Then I added back just a hint of tone to make it less stark. If you're getting an impression of polished silver, that's accurate color.

--Rik

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:31 am

Thanks for the guesses, folks! Keep 'em coming in -- they give me ideas for other interesting things to shoot.

More information about the current subject...

This is part of the workings of a common device. It was fully functional and probably had a lot of useful life left until I took it apart to make the picture.

That said, it's also true that this subject looks dramatically different now than it did when it was new, roughly 1000 working hours ago.

I see at least one answer in here that's clearly on the right track. Think a bit harder and add one crucial piece of detail.

--Rik

Stevie · Post by **Stevie** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:21 am

A light bulb filament ?

Hairyduck · Post by **Hairyduck** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:55 am

looks like the grooves in a record, vinyl precord master maybe?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:09 am

For comparison, here is another part of the same object. This is about 25% less magnification, same lighting setup.

--Rik

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:49 pm

So we appear to be looking at a small coil, but not small enough for a bulb filament. Is this one of those catalysts from a modern jet-flame lighter, or something like that? (which I think would make it platinum or osmium?)

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:15 pm

As I understand it, the material is tungsten.

A process very much like catalysis is critical to the operation of this device, but catalysis is not its primary function.

--Rik

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:30 pm

Very pretty photos, Rik! Especially the first one that shows features of the crystal structure of the metal.

A process very much like catalysis is critical to the operation of this device

Is this process the tungsten-halogen cycle?
If so, then I'd say it's the filament of a halogen lamp and the crystal appearance is a result of the tungsten being redeposited onto the filament.

--Betty