Is it just us or is it a little bit strange that things can be and frequently are better insulators than vacuum?
-F
we understand why, of course, it just feels a bit weird for some reason
-F
@Felthry That's a thing? Hmm...
I mean, if it's conduction-wise it does strike me as weird! Radiation-wise it'd make total sense though.
@IceWolf yeah, glass and some rubbers are stronger electrical insulators than vacuum
because the only thing keeping electrons from moving freely in vacuum is the work function of the metal they're already in, whereas in a non-vacuum insulator there's all these atoms in the way and nowhere for electrons to move freely
-F
@Felthry Oh huh neato! Thanks! =^.^=
@IceWolf of course at low electric field strengths and low temperatures a vacuum is a pretty great insulator but once you get those electrons out of the metal they move freely through the vacuum
that's why vacuum tubes work in the first place
-F
@Felthry ...OH /neat!/
@IceWolf vacuum tubes are great
-F
@Felthry Yeah, I can see that - vacuum has literally zero conduction and zero convection, and in a lot of ordinary circumstances, the /bulk/ of heat transfer happens through those two modes ... so insulation being better when you fill the cavity feels a bit like a car getting lighter when you fill the gas tank.
It makes sense but it's odd.
- 🎒
@packbat it occurs to us now that most people don't generally think of electrical insulation when someone says insulator
vacuum is indeed the best thermal insulator you can get, as far as we know
-F
@Felthry ohhh ... we were like "that's weird but we believe you and we can sorta see it" but it makes so much more sense with electrical insulation
- 🎒
@Felthry ...OH!
*facepaw*
@IceWolf sometimes we don't realize just how much our being an electrical engineer changes the way we use words
-F
@Felthry *grins*
I probably have that with programming things, I bet.
But yeah, even after that /entire cool infodump/ I was still thinking thermal.
...I think I kinda split it somehow when vacuum tubes got involved, thinking electrical there and thermal elsewhere. How? I don't know!
@Felthry ah I thought you meant thermal
@starkatt seems that a lot of people did, hence the clarification!
-F
to clarify that's electrical insulator not thermal
it's hard to beat vacuum for thermal insulation
-F