🚀 go-pugleaf

esm40@cd.amdahl.com (Ed McGettigan) writes:

>Does anyone know of any materials/liquids that harden when you apply
>a voltage/current to them and revert when you turn it off?

  Think there's a whole family of such materials-called (I believe)
electrorheologic materials.

  The ones I've heard of tend to be used in magnetic clutches and the
like.  They consist of thick oils loaded with powdered steel-under the
influence of a magnetic field the material 'solidifies' (the powder
consolidates).  The stuff would likely behave the same if you ran a
current thru it (because of the resulting magnetic field).  No problem
that it's an insulator-one variety of this stuff uses mercury as a
matrix.