Why is it when i have debates about tanks that people think DU is a hard substance?

everyone who brings it up in these debates (which i have quite allot) seems to think the stuff is similar to vibranium or whatever Captain America's shield is made out of. the only thing it is good for is being dense meaning that a jet of molten copper needs to displace more mass to get through to the under armour, it's not strong by any means just heavy.



just wondering why people seem to not know this but still try to bring it up in dabate.Why is it when i have debates about tanks that people think DU is a hard substance?
This is because like you, they have either not researched the answer or cannot understand the research. Either way, depleted uranium is used not only because it's mass enables better penetration (Remember 9th grade physics, F=MxA) but also because it is pyrophoric.



For those who were not educated here, this means:

The projectiles can strike with a greater force, at a greater distance and can ignite the target. For those same reasons, it makes excellent armor. Note that this substance has been used by the American military for years now. This is not new.Why is it when i have debates about tanks that people think DU is a hard substance?
When it comes to tank armor, dense and heavy equals strong.

Lead is heavy but it is not dense. Look at the hardness rating of it. DU has a far higher hardness scale rating than steel or aluminum and especially lead. There is a reason we make Tank Penetrator rounds out of it, and there is a reason we have DU armor on our tanks.Why is it when i have debates about tanks that people think DU is a hard substance?
Lead is soft, not dense. It is heavy...so is mercury and gold....they all suck as protection from munitions.



Laminates of steel, ceramics and DU work. Laminating is key to most BR. The glass we installed in banks was plain old glass.....after many lamination's it would stop hand guns up to 9mm when 1.5" thick, just add to cover larger bores, woven kevlar is used a replacement for steel plates in walls...the strength coming from both the weave and the lamination's. Even plywood uses cross grain lamination to add strength Chip board is carefully made of alternating layers of chips. One layer is vertical next horizontal.



When I worked at LLNL we had lead bricks all over the place so we could make radiation shields, the bomb shelters were rebar,concrete and steel plated walls. You can add to the mix so you have ball bearing, small pieces of rebar or in the case of a vault wall layers of rebar filled with 11 sack concrete. The small pieces of metal will deflect objects that penitrate...they may not stop them but can delfect them enough to keep you safe....ceramics work that way..it aborbs and deflects.