How can a rigid crystal lattice be so elastic?
For a non-scientist, to say the epola is a crystal lattice means ‘hard and brittle’ but this is a misunderstanding of elasticity and plasticity. Billiard balls are hard but highly elastic, a bell or glass ‘rings’ because it is hard and elastic, a car’s springs are hardened steel and highly elastic. The epola is a highly elastic medium which requires only small displacements of its particles about their normal (rest) position to accommodate the motion of most atomic matter particles. Small displacements require only proportionately small forces which resonate or pass on the energy without (significant) loss – like a weight suspended and bouncing from a truly perfect spring. Electrons and nuclei of atomic matter pass through the epola typically causing less deflection of all but the nearest bound electrons and positrons (e-po particles) of the epola than their vibrations already due to thermal effects. The passage of large nuclei present greater difficulty and this may prove to be signif
