"New Horizons" - NASA automatic interplanetary station, designed to study Pluto, Charon and Kuiper belt objects (in 2019). The equipment is wrapped in gold foil to protect against exposure to IR radiation.

Foil for the maker is a universal material, suitable not only for “protection of the mind”, but also in real cases. Our DIY community has shared ideas on how useful things can be crafted from foil. You yourself will see that the foil for a person “with hands” is (at the same time) plasticine, puzzles, watercolor and a radio-controlled dump truck for a child.

What can be interesting foil? Light, flexible, not afraid of water and high temperatures, environmentally safe, affordable, remarkably retains its shape, has barrier properties to oxygen and moisture, and conducts electricity well. Foil on a variety of properties can compete with glass.

Brief history of foil

We all know the metal "paper" is widespread after the opening of the method of "roll" of aluminum, although thin metal sheets are made of steel, tin, silver, gold. The first foil in the history (in most countries, the generally accepted definition of foil is the value of sheet metal thickness up to 0.2 mm) was made from a thin tin sheet in the second half of the 19th century and was more rigid (compared to aluminum). The first audio recordings on the phonograph cylinders were made on tin foil.
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A foil of refined aluminum appeared in 1903, and for packaging products it began to be used in 1910. By 1930, in Europe and the USA, foil was widely distributed as a universal means of packaging ready-made food. After World War II, technical aluminum foil began to be actively used in industry, from the production of heating systems to the creation of space satellites (the foil from the purest aluminum was used on the Echo-1 satellite).

For some spacecraft, gold foil is used - unlike copper and silver, gold does not corrode and is easier to work with it than with aluminum. However, the “cosmic” foil consists not only of gold alone. “Golden Foil” is actually a multi-layer metallized film. Details can be found in the article "Green Cat".

Physical and chemical transformations

We are serious people, so we will not cut out beautiful letters from foil. First, let's look at what can be made of foil and detergent.


The interaction of alkali (concentrated sodium hydroxide solution) with aluminum produces explosive hydrogen.

If you stayed in the forest with a pair of batteries (or a phone battery) and a wrap from Alenka chocolate, you can attract attention, fight off the wolves and fry the roe.


Everything is logical: a current flows through the foil, from which the conductor heats up and the paper wrapper lights up. Strengthen the effect can be, if you add on the foil a bit of wool.

The finest foil made of pure aluminum is used to create mirrors with special properties.


And another interesting experience with foil: how to make a battery yourself. We will need a copper coin, cardboard, salt water and foil.


There is a more advanced option, where instead of coins copper foil is used. In this case, it will be possible to get 3 volts (with a current of 0.1 to 0.2 mA).


From the eflose channel you can pull out the whole series about the physical properties of the foil. For example, welding with foil. By the way, even glass is offered to be welded by the explosion of foil.

Foil and satellite dish

If you are not reflected in any mirror, try to make your own reflective surface. Not really trying, you can make a good heater from a plate, paint, foil and glue.


About the same technology, but with great diligence, it will turn out to make a heating pad and almost a real mirror.


It is important to consider that for the experience chosen the thinnest foil. The main condition is that the foil should be pressed down tightly so that no air bubbles remain under it. You can use not only the basis of a satellite dish, but any non-standard object.

If you do not have a satellite dish at hand, you can make it yourself. An antenna is simply a sheet of metal, made in the form of a concave parabola. Due to the curvature of the surface, the signal is reflected and focused on the receiver. Foil is an excellent reflector and therefore it is used to receive a signal. In addition to the foil, you will need an umbrella, a copper antenna cable, a beer can and an amplifier with a power supply. The entire inside of the umbrella is sheathed with foil; an oval plate cut from a can is attached to the handle of the umbrella. The core of the antenna cable is soldered to the plate, after which the compound is closed with clay.

By this principle, any device is made to receive a signal. For example, a Wi-Fi signal amplifier created from a piece of foam covered with foil.


Although it is natural that a parabolic antenna will work better. In this video, the author used a simple plastic lampshade as a base.

In this video, the foil was used to amplify the communication signal with a DJI Phantom 3 quadrocopter.


In the next video, using a foil and a piece of pizza box, we made a television antenna with a radius of 45 miles.

And "Mind Protection"

The foil cap reliably protects the brain from reptilian attention, but in addition it can be used for other security measures. The simplest “bug” is made with the help of a foil, as is, incidentally, an “anti-bug” (an indicator of the presence of a high-frequency field is made with a small piece of foiled glass fiber textolite).

A team of scientists from MIT even managed to reconstruct the speech by analyzing the vibrations emanating from the foil in such items as a bag of chips. It was possible to reconstruct audio tracks not only in laboratory conditions, but also on video frames (!) With aluminum foil.


So if it seems to you that the food packaging is watching you, there is a reason for that.

Tried to protect bank cards with foil? Naturally, the foil does not scan cards.


A piece of aluminum foil at least 27 microns thick is enough to block RFID and NFC signals.

Yes, even a pair of plastic bottles and foil make a thermos, but in the end I want to finish something more interesting. For example, the answer to the main question of life: do foil hats really help? It has been scientifically proven that foil can reflect electromagnetic radiation at certain frequencies, while at others, on the contrary, it significantly enhances. However, this fact did not prevent the “protective cap” from entering Kickstarter.




And do not forget that the foil can always be used to draw colleagues!