"Orange, Squishy Body Armor" Topic

If you were attacked with a baseball bat and you were wearing this bright orange goop under your clothes, then your attacker might as well have swung a toothpick at you — the goop will take the hit for you and absorb the strike.

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So it's Non-Newtonian fluid?

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Yep, looks Non-Newtonian to me too.

But I think there are some unrealistic expectations or over blown hype in the release – filling a helmet with this stuff is going to provide minimal protection as what is needed is a system to spread out the TIME over which the impact is absorbed – a rigid system is just going to break some other bones and do things like punch you spine up through the bottom of your skull if you get hit from above OR below. The hand protection in those gloves is also limited, I'd be happier if it was made so the Goo went down the length of each finger as well as across the knuckles – you are going to be pretty useless with your fingers bent back over the back of your hand (and probably permanently crippled).

It could greatly increase the effectiveness of bullet & fragmentation resistant vests – one of their major failings is that they turn a penetration into a massive blunt trauma which kills internal organs – current technology with ceramic plates only works for one impact per plate, and the plates can develop fine cracks (even in storage) which makes them fail too soon when hit. If enough of the Goo goes rigid on impact, and continues to react over repeated impacts, this is a REAL lifesaver as long as the fabric layers can hold onto the projectile.

The blunt trauma is the big thing. Couple of weeks ago I got to meet Mike Day. He has the distinction of being shot 27 times when he entered a small room that had 4 bad guys in it and between them they had 3 AK's and a pistol. Eleven of the bullets were caught by Mikes weapon or his body armor, the rest hit him just about everywhere else.. He stated that the body armor strikes hurt the most, cracking ribs among other issues. Not to say he wasn't grateful for what they stopped, just all that energy has to go somewhere.

Yeah, the guy who was demonstrating the Second Chance pistol-proof vests would put several magazines behind the vest to spread the impact of the .44magnum he shot himself with over a larger area.

He did that to reduce organ damage, but pointed out that the vest itself was stopping the bullet and eliminated the penetration risk.