Intelligent metal

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We bend this inconspicuous-looking wire. Next, we heat it with a hair-drier or over a candle flame. As you can see, the wire straightens. It definitely is not a scene from 'Terminator'.

This grey wire is a special alloy of nickel and titanium, discovered in the USA in the 60's and kept a military secret for long. It is used in noiseless yawing of steering parts of wings in Stealth planes. The alloy adopts the shape it has at the temperature of 500 ^oC. Then it can be bent into any shape in room temperature. When we bring the alloy to 100 ^oC, the alloy 'remembers' the shape it adopted at the high temperature and comes back to its original form.

Or maybe this is a new method of straightening wires? Try this with a copper or steel wire. This time it will not work so easy.