This Year’s Black: The Blackest Black Yet
BLACK comes in two sorts: last year’s black and this year’s black.
This year’s black is not brown, racing green or Anthea Turner but a black made from tubes of carbon standing on end. It is a black 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.
It has a total reflective index of 0.045 percent - more than three times darker than the nickel-phosphorous alloy that now holds the record as the world’s darkest material. Standard black paint has a reflective index of 5 percent to 10 percent.
Previous benchmarks of blackness are thought to include:
David Beckham
Michael Jackson
The Dark Continent
Black Magic (chocolates)
Sooty
The Black And White Minstrels
Philip (Rising Damp)
Pic: A National Institute of Standards and Technology reflectance standard (left), a sample of the new darkest material (center), and a piece of glassy carbon (right), taken under a flash light illumination are seen in an undated handout photo.
January 18th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
If anyone needs a long, tedious, explanation of reflective properties of materials or what various values of emmissivity actually mean, I’m available.
If, however, you dont care; well that’s fine too!
It’s quiet in the lab today… me mind’s gone wild!!!!!!!!
January 18th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Glad you told us, thought had spots in my eyes!
Oh David , do control the wild side, catch it and enjoy it!
January 18th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
DAvid - Can we be made invisible?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
What about Barack? I thought he was the current benchmark of black?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I mean, in China, it sounds almost the same…