Unobtainium Why?

[FROGGEman2]

It's the one thing in this universe which could possibly expand Cameron's already bloated ego.

...... HA

Seconded XD

Dude, respect, please. This is the king of sci-fi you're talking about.

The one king of sci-fi is Gene Roddenberry.
You all know it to be true.

Sorry, what I meant to say was, "The living king of sci-fi".

 

[Daniel Cygnus]

A fossil fuel of sorts I guess, or at least a metaphor for a fossil fuel.

That's what I think. It sounds the most reasonable to me, and it would explain why people from a "dying world" would want it so badly.

 

[hudsonzero]

If you've seen Avatar you know that the corporation was their to mine for a shiny substance, unobtanium. The thing is that it is never explained (in the movie) why this shiny metal is so damn valuable. So I ask you, what do you think unobtanium does to make it so valuable? I personally think it's a cure to some form of disease, or maybe cancer.

Edit: Unobtanium is worth 20 million dollars a kilogram.

in the game its reveled to be required for dark mater engines

 

[Brnin8]

They were planning on rebuilding the Annumidium, but were foiled by the blue skinned locals...

 

[Daffy F]

If it's anything like smurfberries, it'll be a great source of energy.

Of COURSE! Smurfberries! That's why my potatoes haven't been growing properly. Thanks, Figment of my imagination!

 

[PinkAngelKitty]

Because it's unobtainable?

That was a stupid aspect of Avatar. Unobtainium is an old chemist's joke.

 

[Veylon]

This entire thread is a failure on the part of Mr. Cameron. No one who's seen the movie should harbor doubt about unobtanium. It's nature is crucial to the plot. And yet, why, precisely, people want the stuff so bad is never explained within.

It's as though we went through the entire Lord of the Rings without the One Ring receiving any explanation or why it must be thrown into Mt. Doom, or if J.K. Rowling never explained why Voldemort keeps trying to kill Harry, or if the Phantom Menace never explained what the Trade Federation was getting out of conquering and occupying Naboo. It's just like that.

 

[SD-Fiend]

its probably everything you can come up with and more that or they just want it to see what it does

 

[GrinningManiac]

because they needed some weak-arse reason for having humans there in the first place

I mean, the film probably would have worked with "researching natives", but that wouldn't have entailed the crazy general and marine corps, so the film would have just been a massive scientific sucsess (plot wise), whereupon it would end.

 

[electric_warrior]

If it's anything like smurfberries, it'll be a great source of energy.

DUDE REALLY?! ARE YOU THAT MUCH OF A LOSER?!

What? Southpark references are lame now? Okay then, I'm lame but you, sir, are a dickweed.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Space Mythril

 

[electric_warrior]

im afraid you are wrong good sir! for i am not a dickweed, i am a dickbranch

Fair enough. As a result of your honesty, you are forgiven

 

[Outright Villainy]

The funny thing, is it has a full explanation over the wiki, and through interviews; as people have said it's a superconductor that works at room temperature (which would be super valuable) but it's instead left to being a mac guffin in the film? I knew of the old trope, so it's seemed like it was trying to be genre savvy or something. It'd explain the floating mountain business too.

 

[FatherSpleen]

It's name is a ridiculous pun, and puns are hard to find on Earth in the future after people learned how to make pun-powered cars.

 

[PinkAngelKitty]

It's name is a ridiculous pun, and puns are hard to find on Earth in the future after people learned how to make pun-powered cars.

+1 reputation

 

[Kwatsu]

Um. If they know it's on Pandora, have been mining it for ages and know exactly how to find the biggest deposit EVER... isn't it therefore clearly *obtainable*?

 

[Foxbat Flyer]

If you've seen Avatar you know that the corporation was their to mine for a shiny substance, unobtanium. The thing is that it is never explained (in the movie) why this shiny metal is so damn valuable. So I ask you, what do you think unobtanium does to make it so valuable? I personally think it's a cure to some form of disease, or maybe cancer.

Edit: Unobtanium is worth 20 million dollars a kilogram.

Unobtainium is a term used by aerospace engineers (like myself, a freshman in aerospace engineering) to describe a substance that doesn't exist, is expensive or is not available in high enough quantities, but at the same time is needed for a new design.

In the movie Avatar, unobtainium is a naturally-occuring room temerature super conductor. The properties of said object would be 1) the ability to transfer electric current with 100% effieciency (as opposed to current high-voltage wires which have ~50% effieciency over long distances.) and 2) levitation in a magnetic field. Which is why you see the floating islands, and the floating rock in Selfrige's office.

in short, Unobtainium is a room temperature superconductor. If that existed 20 million per kilo would actually be kinda cheap.

EDIT: yeah it was never explicitly explained in the movie, but from its properties, it's obvious that it is a superconductor

This in full.

The game explains what it is, what its used for and its properites. It is used to levitate some big train on earth where normal magnets would flip the train. The hallelujah mountains float, because when the planet (Or moon if you want to be technically correct) was in a molten state, the unobtanium moved to the surface and the below rock eroded away until they came off, bringing some rock with it. The Arches in the movie/game are also from unobtainium and are structures of unobtanium that were formed within the rock which then eroded away, leaving the arches

 

[Soushi]

Pfft, well obviously the Earth core had stopped spinning so they needed to... oh... wait...