Unobtainium is a humorous colloquialism that refers to any extremely rare, costly, or physically impossible material needed to fulfill a given design for a given application. The name is not a portmanteau but it is derived from unobtainable + ium (the suffix for a number of elements). Variations include unobtanium and unattainium, with the same meaning. Look up Colloquialism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Materials science includes those parts of chemistry and physics that deal with the properties of materials. ... A portmanteau (IPA: ) is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning. ... Look up element in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The properties of any particular "unobtainium" depend on the intended use. For example, a pulley made of unobtainium might be massless and frictionless. However, if used in a nuclear rocket, unobtainium would be light, strong at high temperatures, and resistant to radiation damage. For other uses, see Friction (disambiguation). ...

Aerospace and electronics

Engineers have long used (at least since 1980^[1]) the term unobtainium when referring to unusual or costly materials, or when theoretically considering a material perfect for their needs in all respects save that it doesn't exist. For example, see the paper, Towards unobtainium [new composite materials for space applications], by Misra and Mohan.^[2] In this article they note that the ideal material (unobtainium) would weigh almost nothing, but be very stiff and dimensionally stable over large temperature ranges. They then discuss how modern composites are approaching this ideal.

The word unobtainium may well have been coined within the aerospace industry. Aerospace engineers are frequently tempted to design aircraft which require parts with strength or resilience beyond that of currently available materials. Aerospace engineering is the branch of engineering that concerns aircraft, spacecraft, and related topics. ...

Unobtainium is also used for materials that are practical and really exist, but are difficult to get. For example, during the development and service period of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, engineers working for Lockheed Corporation at the Skunk Works used the term unobtainium as a dysphemism for titanium. This was not because of the radical decision to use the untried new material, but because at the time the Soviets were cornering the market in this material and were careful not to allow the American military to get hold of it.^[3] In modern times, titanium is readily obtained.^[4] SR-71 redirects here. ... The Lockheed SR-71 was remarkably advanced for its time and remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. ... A modern Skunk Works project leverages an older: LASRE atop the SR-71 Blackbird. ... In language, both dysphemism (from the Greek “dys” δυς = non and “pheme” φήμη = speech) and cacophemism (in Greek “cacos” κακός = bad) refer to the usage of an intentionally harsh word or expression instead of a polite one; they are rough opposites of euphemism. ... General Name, symbol, number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 47. ...

Similarly, in maintaining old equipment (electronic and other) unobtainium is often used to refer to replacement parts that are no longer made (e.g. many parts for reel-to-reel audio recorders used to play back archive tapes for digitization). Uncommon, or rare, vacuum tubes are often said to be made of "unobtainium" when they cost more than the equipment they are fitted to (especially true of certain tubes, such as the 1L6, used exclusively in American battery powered shortwave radios). The 1L6 is a 7 pin miniature vacuum tube of the pentagrid converter type. ... A solid-state, analog shortwave receiver Shortwave radio operates between the frequencies of 3 MHz (3,000 kHz) and 30 MHz (30,000 kHz) [1] and came to be referred to as such in the early days of radio because the wavelengths associated with this frequency range were shorter than...

Science fiction

The term has been used in science fiction for materials that have incredibly strong properties. For example scrith, the fictional material forming the foundation of the Ringworld in Larry Niven's novel of the same name, requires a tensile strength on the order of the forces binding an atomic nucleus together. Since no such material is thought to be possible, a ring world is therefore said to be built out of unobtainium. Unobtainium can be used in a disparaging context (e.g., "that idea is silly; you'd need unobtainium wires to hold the planet up!") or a hypothetical one ("If one were to build an unobtainium shell around a black hole's event horizon, what would happen to the material piling up on it?") The term handwavium (suggesting handwaving) is another term for this hypothetical material, as are "buzzwordium" and "flangium" (from "to flange" meaning to make up something improbable, especially in fiction or interactive entertainment such as larp). In the movie The Core, one of the characters invented a material to build the hull of the craft that dug to the Earth's core — he explicitly dubbed this material unobtainium (due to its real name having 37 syllables). Unobtainium also is mentioned as being used in a probability-field weapon in the Uplift Saga by David Brin. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Scrith, usually written italicized as scrith, is a fictional substance conceived by Larry Niven. ... Ringworld is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The nucleus of an atom is the very small dense region, of positive charge, in its centre consisting of nucleons (protons and neutrons). ... For other uses, see Black hole (disambiguation). ... The term handwaving is used in mathematics and physics to describe arguments that are not mathematically rigorous. ... A live action role-playing game, or LARP as it is commonly known, is a form of role-playing game where the participants perform some or all of the physical actions of the characters they play the role of. ... The Core (2003) is a science fiction disaster film very loosely based on the novel Core by Paul Preuss. ... The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. ... Glen David Brin, Ph. ...

Hard SF - a sub-genere of SF - uses a more restrictive definition of these terms:^{[citation needed]} Hard science fiction, or hard SF, is a subgenre of science fiction characterized by an interest in scientific detail or accuracy. ...

Handwavium: Handwavium is machinery which violates known laws of physics. There is no accepted physical theory for this effect and no theoretical pathway to the construction of such machinery. The machinery need not necessarily have any specified material composition.

Unobtainium: We can't build a physical example of it, but insofar as we can postulate that it can be built at all, the laws of physics say it would behave like thus and so.

Late-contemporary usage

More recently "unobtainium" has come to be used among people who are neither science fiction fans nor engineers, to denote an object that actually exists, but which is very hard to obtain either because of high price or limited availability. It usually refers to a very high-end and desirable product, e.g. in the mountain biking community, "These titanium hubs are unobtainium, man!", or a first-time indie film director saying that a sound stage to film in would be unobtainium.^{[citation needed]} High end refers to the best and generally most expensive of a class of goods or services. ... Mountain biker riding in the Arizona desert. ... A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ... General Name, symbol, number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 47. ... An independent film, or indie film, is usually a low-budget film that is produced by a small movie studio. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Soundstage redirects here. ...

There have been repeated attempts to attribute the name to a real material. Because of the long-standing usage of the term "unobtainium" within the space elevator research community to describe a material with the necessary characteristics, LiftPort Group President, Michael Laine has advocated assigning the term as the generic name for cables woven of carbon nanotube fibers, which do seem to have met the requirements for this application. Since he claimed that sufficiently long nanotube cables will be prohibitively expensive to develop without inexpensive access to microgravity, these cables would still be close enough to unobtainable to meet the definition. However, this usage does not seem to have become widespread at this time. A space elevator would consist of a cable anchored to the Earths surface, reaching into space. ... LiftPort Group is a privately-held Washington State corporation with headquarters in Bremerton, Washington. ...

Oakley, Inc. has trademarked the word Unobtainium [sic] to refer to a rubber compound used on the frames of their sunglasses. This compound is designed to grip the nose and temples when it becomes wet with perspiration. Due to rampant prior use of the term, US trademark laws are unlikely to protect Oakley's claim on the word outside of the eyewear/clothing industry. Unobtainium is also the name of an intense, sparkly color of blue glass, produced by Northstar Glass. Oakley is an eyewear company known mostly for their high end sunglasses and ski goggles. ... Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses (RB2132 901L) Sunglasses are a visual aid, variously termed spectacles or glasses, which feature lenses that are coloured or darkened to prevent strong light from reaching the eyes. ...

Automotive enthusiasts

In the world of odd-ball and rare auto restoration, and or maintenance, the term Unobtainium is used to describe any part that is reasonably impossible to obtain. For example; if one needed a rear lamp bezel for a 1929 Viking automobile the needed part would be described as being made from pure Unobtainium. This term states the extreme rareness of a part versus a merely hard to obtain part that may be referred to as being made from Junkyardium. Automobile restoration is the process of returning a car to essentially the same condition that it was in when it left the factory at time of manufacture. ... The Viking was an automobile manufactured by General Motors Oldsmobile Division for model year 1929 and 1930. ...

However, unlike the world of aerospace, if one has the resources and desire of say, Jay Leno, then they can acquire, or have made one off, any part regardless of how high its content of Unobtainium may be. Jay Leno (born April 28, 1950) is an Emmy-winning American comedian and writer who is best known as the current host of NBC televisions long-running variety and talk program The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. ...

See also

• Materials science in science fiction

Material science in science fiction is the study of how materials science is portrayed in works of science fiction. ...

References and footnotes

1. ^ This dates back to at least 1980. See, for example, Thomas W. Orange, NASA Technical Paper 1600, A Relation Between Semiempirical Fracture Analyses and R-Curves, which contains Figure 7. - Residual strength of hypothetical material Unobtainium, January 1980, page 33.
2. ^ Misra; Mohan (Nov-Dec 1990). "Towards unobtainium [new composite materials for space applications]". Aerospace Composites and Materials 2: 29-32. 
3. ^ Titanium was required because of the high temperatures that the SR-71 airframe reached. Although titanium alloys have a strength/weight ratio which is much the same as aluminum alloys at room temperature, titanium maintains much of its strength at 600°C whereas aluminum weakens dramatically at this temperature. In spite of efforts by the Soviet Union to prevent it, a large quantity of titanium somehow found its way to the United States after an apparently innocent European company bought a considerable quantity. The company was in fact a front set up for this very purpose. Relatively large amounts of titanium are used in aircraft such as the F-15, F-18, and F-22 fighters and the B-1 bomber.
4. ^ Large deposits of titanium dioxide, usually in the form of sand, exist in places such as Florida and are mined there. By heating titanium dioxide with metallic sodium or potassium in an inert atmosphere (e.g. argon), metallic titanium is obtained.

External links

• A Note on Unobtanium
• World Wide Words — Unobtanium
• Going Up? Private Group Begins Work on Space Elevator