Corning launches can-stand-the-heat Lotus glass for phones

One of the key brand names tossed around in relation to smartphone and tablets this year has been Corning's Gorilla Glass. Next year, it may be Lotus Glass. Corning announced Lotus' commercial availability yesterday, and immediately began touting the display material's suitability for "cutting-edge technologies", including …

[salerio]

"Scientifically, its coefficient of thermal expansion from 0-300°C is a mere 33.9 x 10-7 per ° C"

Scientifically you need to say 33.9*10^-7 WHAT per degree C, presumably not light years or furlongs. Come on get with it :)

[Hnk0]

The unit is /degC, as indicated in the article and your post.

[Anonymous Coward]

well, actually...

I was astonished to see 33.9 * 10^-7 when the usual notation would be 3.39 * 10^-6.

Especially since 10^-6 is a conventional point of reference usually denoted by 'micro'.

As to the 'What' per degree C, it is just a proportion of the length (or volume for liquids), which in this case is specified for not just one temperature (usually 20C) but the whole 0-300C range.

Some comparisons for other materials here - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/simple/wiki/Coefficient_of_thermal_expansion

[cloudgazer]

Wow, way to display ignorance

The units are correct, in order to determine the length that a specific item grows you multiply by the length of the item which itself has units.

See for example en.wikipedia.org/coefficient_of_expansion

[The Equestrian]

Time for a lesson

That silly little number is a coefficient, that means it has no units! A metre length of glass will inrease in size by 3.39 micro-metres for each degree c of temperature rise

[Vic]

It's been a few years since I did A-level physics...

> Scientifically you need to say 33.9*10^-7 WHAT per degree C

...But I seem to remember thermal expansion coefficients being fractional changes, and thus dimensionless...

Vic.

[Who's going off to check, just in case he's just made a total arse of himself. Again.]

[An ominous cow herd]

It's a coefficient, it has no unit. Scientifically.

[DaveyDaveDave]

Or better 3.39 x 10^-6 WHAT per degree C

No?

[Max Sang]

Dimensionless, old chap

It's a percentage change in each linear dimension. It gets 0.00000339% bigger with every degree of warming.

[Graham Dawson]

Nanolinguini?

[Michael 47]

Thermal expansivity has no units, as it is basically a percentage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_expansion

[shakey]

No units because it's a proportional increase. It increases it's dimensions by 33.9*10^-7 metres per metre of length per degree. Mteres per metre cancels, leaving just per degree

[Dale 3]

Coefficient, not unit

It's a coefficient, not a unit. You could determine it experimentally by measuring the length (or volume) of a piece of the material at one temperature, and then again at another temperature, and then divide the two measurements. Because you are dividing the same units the resulting ratio has no units. If you then divide it by the temperature difference you get the coefficient, whose unit is "per degree C". Hence "33.9 * 10^-7 / degree C".

[The Calvinator]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensionless

[Chris Rowland]

It's a ratio. Ratios don't have units.

[andreas koch]

@Salerio

Linguine, mate, Linguine. Don't forget where you are.

[Sean Baggaley 1]

If I may divert the conversation slightly:

While I'm here: "Panini" = "Sandwiches", not "Sandwich". The singular form is "Panino".

Every time I pass some pretentious café or glorified sandwich shop in England and see "panini" used as a singular noun, I want to beat someone repeatedly over the head with a copy of "Il Ragazzini". It's not _that_ hard to look something up in a dictionary. Or even to ask a translator (or, hell, even someone who's bilingual!)

Then again, I twitch every time I see a grocer's apostrophe, so maybe I should get out more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Standard units please

light years? furlongs? Please use standard El Reg units. Bulgarian funbags or somesuch.

[Jan 0]

@salerio, errm no.

There is no "WHAT" required, this is a coefficient, it works in any system of units.

(Saying miles per mile per degree Celsius, or metres per metre is redundant.)

However, the author did fail to tell us whether this was a linear, area or volume coefficient, but I'd guess that this is its linear coefficient of expansion, judging by it's size.

[The Jester]

Metres

Always metres by default.

[VeganVegan]

There is no WHAT.

The value stated is the <em>fractional</em> expansion per unit of temperature change.

In other words, if you've got a piece of this glass as long as almost 295,000 Bulgarian airbags all lined up, this glass will change its length by one airbag per degree celsius change.

[Russell Howe]

Come on, El Reg. How hard is to to put a link on a webpage?

Corning's announcement:

http://www.corning.com/news_center/news_releases/2011/2011102501.aspx

[MrT]

Waiting for...

... the version marketed with "Energy, style, and enthusiasm" - Lotus Elan

Then the one that does it's job a bit better that the original - Lotus Excel

Then the on that's so thin it's a ghost of the first version - Lotus Esprit

Then the one for iPhone only - Lotus Elite

Any resemblance to Lotus Cars is purely coincidental, unless they actually use this stuff in the new Lotus Esprit, over the engine bay to show off the nice new V8. Or possibly in houses in Évora...

[Anonymous Coward]

But

Isn't CTE a ratio so

mm per (mm per degree) simplifies out to per degree?

[Cliff]

Thin pyrex?

[tmTM]

Camera glass

Will they be able to fit it to the camera on a phone as well.

It's great having a scratch free scree on a phone, but when you turn it around and realise the rear camera has been ruined it's kind of annoying.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's a coefficient, it's unitless

(Not UNIT-less as we all are without The Brigadier around these days)

[brainwrong]

@ salerio

No, they don't need to say WHAT per degree C, thermal expansion is just a ratio.

How much it expands depends on how much you've got.

[Peter Rose 1]

If you're being pedantic, it's 33.9 x 10-7 metres per metre per ° C

If you're being really pedantic the metres cancel out and leave you with 33.9 x 10-7 per ° C

So, yes, light years or furlongs would be fine. As would linguini. If you want linguini per furlong per ° C then the number itself is going to change though.

[short]

There is fail, Salerio, and it's yours.

You may, or may not, wish to rethink your comment.

[John H Woods]

Sorry, it's you that's wrong this time ...

The units of the coefficient of thermal expansion are length per length per Kelvin - therefore just per Kelvin (or per degree C, if you prefer). This one means that per degree C it expands by 3.4 millionths (of its original size). Not quite sure why this was expressed with the exponent -7 though.

[Anonymous Cowbard]

It's a ratio...

..so it's dimensionless.

I thought I'd repeat it too, seems everyone else has.

[MJI]

Is it from Norfolk?

With the rest of Lotus products.

(I know that the Russelheim and Linwood ones were only finished there)

[D Pollard]

Given that Lotus Group vs Lotus Motorsport Vs Team Lotus vs Lotus F1 are still battling it out over the name "Lotus", does anyone really want to bring a product to market right now which includes "Lotus" in the title?

---

Euan Sheet.

Bounty - not Lotus.