"T888 and Cameron endos aren't made purely out of tantalum-nobium, tantalum and niobium are additives blended with titanium and aluminum in intermetallic form (the real life equivalent of a hyperalloy) to give the endos greater strength and a higher melting point.

Terminators sink rather than float because of bouyancy, not weight issues. And yes, Terminators are a bit heavier than a human of the same size, but not ridiculously so. A 600 lb. terminator would be a very poor infiltrator-- we joked in the writers' room that you could simply dig pits with breakaway flooring in front of every resistance bunker as a foolproof way to foil them.

Of course, a 'roided out bodybuilder hiding among skinny, starving refugees isn't a great infiltrator, either, but that's a whole other subject. :)"

"T888 and Cameron endos aren't made purely out of tantalum-nobium, tantalum and niobium are additives blended with titanium and aluminum in intermetallic form (the real life equivalent of a hyperalloy) to give the endos greater strength and a higher melting point. <snip>"

"Weight makes no difference with swimming; Terminators have no buoyancy - because they don't have lungs and have no oxygen inside them to help keep them afloat. Ships weigh far more than a Termie, but they float fine. "

"Yes, and I thought the show made that pretty clear - Cameron said Carter's Crate of Coltan was sufficient for 530 endoskeletons - that's a lot of endoskeletons!
The coltan bars were pretty heavy, but each endo must constitute less than one bar.
"

"If they are addictive in the melted metal their value should be less 1%...for instance in steel you can vanadium in order to improve its elasticity, typical case for springs...their value could variate between 0.30 to 1 % max, therefore if the bar is made of pure coltan, it should be enough to make more than 530 endoskeletons.

If I wanted to make a tough question for the Turk I would ask why Skynet felt necessary to use coltan, since a Ti-10-2-3 alloy used in the nozzles of jets doesn't lose its mechanical propetries until 1500°C...is Skynet operating Terminators in vulcanoes? :D"

"TheTurk is correct in what he is stating without getting to the exact parallels to Archemedes' principle. And without bringing in shape and design of the terminator and where its metacenter is at. All things needed to consider the principle of displacing water to achieve buoyancy.
Its like why a coin goes to the bottom, why a roll of coins goes to the bottom, but stamp out that roll of coins to form a crude v hull and it will float even holding more rolls of coins."

"OK a tungsten or depleted uranium round was able to open the skull of a T-888 at close range, therefore we have to assume that they're more efficient than plasma rifles and that plasma rifles are opearting over the temperatures of 1500°C and they're working as HEAT but they penetrate melting the armour, a process that would ask for some seconds, if not minutes, since the Titanium is a bad heat conductor.

I'd say that it's a little stretch. Just a little. :D"

"Weight makes no difference with swimming; Terminators have no buoyancy - because they don't have lungs and have no oxygen inside them to help keep them afloat. Ships weigh far more than a Termie, but they float fine. "

"Oh FFS...

TheTurk: "Terminators sink rather than float because of bouyancy, not weight issues."
He is saying that the Terminators are not ridiculously heavy, like say 600lbs, they are only slightly heavier than humans. Since humans can float because we have an average density of around the same as water, if a Terminator is even a little heavier than a human of the same size (volume) then it will sink.

Comprende?"