14 DAY TRIAL // A group of German researchers have managed for the first time ever to develop a pentamode metamaterial. This is a material in which shear parameters are equal to zero, and compression is the only value that is not zero. The state of water is the ideal state of such a metamaterial as well.
Experts with the research team equated what they had to do with building a scaffold out of pins that only touched at their tips. In order to explain or control the mechanical behavior of a material, they explain, scientists must understand compression and shear parameters, EurekAlert reports.
In the case of water, for example, shear forces are what allow the chemical to take the shape of the object it's placed in, or seep through cracks in a container. On the other hand, it cannot be compressed when inside a cylinder, regardless of the force applied to it.
Investigators had to start from scratch, and design the metamaterial in such a way that it could provide any mechanical property the team could think of. This objective has finally been reached, which means that inaudibility cloaks, acoustic prisms and new loudspeaker concepts may be just around the corner.