Virtually all types of insulation comprise a porous material that traps lots of tiny pockets of air. Air is a very poor conductor of heat, and using lots of tiny pockets prevents any convection or radiation heat transfer within the material.
The end result is a material that allows very little heat energy to pass through it. Think oven gloves, fibreglass attic insulation, foam cavity insulation, wool jumpers, the padding within every type of winter coat.
The difference with the shuttle tiles is that they need to withstand an intense level of heat and therefore the porous mesh material is made out of silicon dioxide to prevent the mesh itself degrading. Silicon dioxide has a very high melting point and is also a poor conductor of heat big it is still air the prevent most of the heat passing through.
Why do you keep mentioning oven gloves, attic insulation, wool jumpers, etc? Seriously why are you so desperate to keep the fictional shuttle tiles alive. It should be clear to most people looking in that those tiles are bogus on that shuttle in terms of what they tell us they actually are.
Now let's see if you grasp this. All you people looking in...get your thinking caps on and absorb what I'm saying.
Do not be put off by insulation. You see, your quilt on your bed (which is basically what these people are trying to marry up with the shuttle) stops your body heat from leaving the bed in short order, because it's full of air resistance between the fibres.
Now just like those supposed shuttle tiles acting like a blanket covering the shuttle under belly, it's working back to front.
Ok, Imagine being in bed covered in shuttle tiles. Your body heat is being kept in by the shuttle tiles and slowly dissipating into the bedroom, through them, in normal calm bedroom air pressure; meaning no forceful friction pushing the body heat out.
Now imagine a person (assuming he could breathe) being under that shuttle tile blanket falling from the sky like we see in a burn up re-entry.
The friction would hit the tile and would be PUSHED into that tile, constantly for however long they say the shuttle is in free fall re-entry friction burn mode.
The air in between the tiles is a complete and utter waste of time isn't it because there is no air. It's all friction, so insulation is KAPUT.
You are tricked to hell with this oven glove bullshit insulation and it has absolutely no bearing on what they tell us is happening in their space ventures with their supposed flying machines.
A sponge will absorb water and it will act as a barrier to more water once it's packed with it in the air holes. It now acts as a barrier and slowly dissipates the water under it as more is poured on top.
Now imagine getting a super massive powerful fireman's hose and blasting that sponge with water. What happens?
Of course: it's going to act like a free flowing tap, just like the shuttle falling out of the sky on its belly against the glowing friction we get shown. It will be like the fireman's glowing friction hose blasting those tiles which will absorb it all the way through to the under belly of the shuttle, where it hits a barrier of aluminium that will reflect the blast for a second until the blast simply melts it all and blows the shuttle to smithereens.
It's just not happening and the tiles are bullshit.