Active Learning
Credits to:
A Brief history of time by Stephan hawkings
Stuff Matters, exploring the marvelous materials that shape our man made world.
The Disappearing spoon by Sam Kean
July 14 2024
Metal Crystals
Metal contains crystals which have little dislocations. You think they are bad, but really they help the metal bend.
July 15 2024
Gold alloys
Gold is too soft of a material to put on rings, so they infuse metals like copper or silver. By doing this, they turn the gold into gold alloy because the metal has now replaced the gold atoms and substituted those for its own atoms.
July 16 2024
Steel
When iron is infused with carbon, it becomes an alloy known as steel. If the iron is infused with too much carbon, it becomes very brittle, that's why swords sometimes break in battles. The two types of alloys are substitutional and interstitial substitutional replaces the metals atoms. Interstitial is where the atoms fit between the larger latices.
July 17 2024
Lingin
Lingen is a natural glue that comes from trees. To make paper, you must remove this glue, but it is extremely difficult to do that, so they have to boil the water and pressurize it for the glue to finally break.
July 18 2024
Celulose fibers
Cellulose fibers allow papers to bend. They do this because cellulose can't snap, so instead at most it can be bent. This is what allows paper to bend and why crease marks are left behind.
July 19 2024
Janus particle
The Janus particle is a digital particle dyed with ink, half black and white. Each side is given two opposite electric charges, which make up what part of the page is dark or white by using the appropriate electric charge.
July 21 2024
Cement
Concrete is formed when calcium fuses with silicate, forming calcium silicate. These Fibrils trapped water and grow, eventually fusing with others locking more and more water until the gel turns to a solid.
July 22 2024
Concrete
Concrete breaks when a crack is formed. This was a big headache for the Romans because the concrete could not hold on its own. The crack causes the block to break, collapsing on its own weight.
July 23 2024
Absolute space
It was interesting to learn that absolute space had been proven wrong, for it would be a point in space supposing looking the same in all views. This is wrong because at different lengths and different perspectives can change the way it looks. You can say a ball bounces two times in the same spot, but another person would say that it move while bouncing.
July 24 2024
Chocolate
Chocolate comes from a fruit that grows from trees called a cacao pod. These pods grow from the trunk of a tree instead of a branch and taste nothing like chocolate. They turn it into chocolate by roasting these fruits and grinding them to turn silky smooth.
July 25 2024
Aerogel (Picture Source: Wikipedia)
Aerogel internal skeleton is a very rigid and jelly like. This is because it is made of a mineral called silicon dioxide, otherwise known for being the primary ingredient for glass. In this skeleton there are gaps of air and then crystal formations in between. This would be the reason for it being the lightest solid in the world.
July 26 2024
Scientific theories
A scientific theory is made based upon rules already made. This theory can never be completely true, and the evidence only supports it, but even if there's one thing against it the entire theory would have to change.
July 27 2024
The truth about newton
Newtons theories are wrong. The reason we still use the is that the difference is so little it doesn't affect most calculations.
July 28 2024
The creation of the universe
The universe was created by a singularity that caused a massive explosion. This explosion was from the evidence of the microwave background radiation evidence that the Big Bang Made the universe.
July 31 2024
Unit cells
To be a unit cell, there is a requirement of 4 corner lattice points. There could be multiple types of unit cells, these could include lattices on the face of a unit cell or only the top and bottom.
August 1 2024
Lattices
Lattices are a 3-dimensional arrangement of points. Lattices are found at a microscopic level and are larger than atoms, which is why atoms can fit inbetween.
August 2 2024
Quartz
Quartz and glass have different crystalline arrangements. Glass has a Catiline structure that is random and doesn't follow a specific pattern, but quartz has a hexagonal arrangement is predictable.
August 3 2024
Glass
When light goes through glass, we don't get a suntan because the glass blocks the UV. Glass can reject many aspects of light and even slowing it down, but if the light hits an angle it goes through with a certain aspect. This is what makes microscopes, telescopes, and our glasses.
August 4 2024
Diamond
Diamonds are one of the hardest material in the world. This is because their crystalline structure is extremely tough. A pyramid structure is extremely stable, which is what makes it an extremely hard material.
August 5 2024
How are diamonds made?
Diamonds are made from a molecule known as carbon. Alone, carbon is a molecule with a nucleus and normally 4 electrons around it. When carbon is compressed under high pressures, it turns into a diamond. This would be the reason why diamonds are deep underground.
August 15 2024
Hydroxyapatite
Hydroxyapatite, is a mineral which is found in the body and bonds very strongly to bones. This material can be turned into glass which included extraordinary properties such as containing tiny channels. This glass can be used for synthetic bone graft.
August 19 2024
Atomic bonds
How are atoms and molecules held together in solids? Atoms and molecules are held together by chemical and physical bonds. These bonds can easily break through several ways such as melting the object.
August 19 2024
Stress and strain
Stress and strain are the basis of most materials. These are measurements used on materials to deter men
how strong they are. Whisker crystals are considered one of the strongest materials in the world because it has a strain level of 3-6 percent.
August 20 2024
Comprehension and tensile force
Comprehension and tensile force are too ways to test a materials sturdiness. Compression is when you push the something together and normally it breaks sideways. Tensile force is pushing the material apart. Some materials have better durability with tensile than compression and vice versa.
August 24 2024
Compression and tensions link
Hydroxyapatite, is a mineral which is found in the body and bonds very strongly to bones. This material can be turned into glass which included extraordinary properties such as containing tiny channels. This glass can be used for synthetic bone graft.
August 24 2024
Compression and tensions link
In certain structures, these two forces are essential for balancing out each other out so that the structure doesn't collapse. Bars supporting a wall must have perfect compression to balance out the tension.
August 25 2024
Materials
Some materials are difficult to apply tension too, this is because the way that object is built is causing it to be harder to break with tension. That's why with you apply compression instead to fix this.
August 26 2024
Silica glass fibres
John Morty of roles Royce has created Silica glass fibres which can withstand up to 2 million p.s.i. This is not only confined to glass fibres, but it could be open to a whole lot more.
September 8 2024
Testing strength
You can test a materials' durability by using either tensile force or compression. Most of the time tensile force refers to the more common one as its measure of unit is P.S.I
September 9 2024
Why some crystals are stronger than others.
People had thought that the reason that some whisker crystals are stronger and others are not as strong was that they had cracks, similar to how glass breaks easily. Yet the real reason was the crystals had layers these were fed molecules form the surroundings making certain layer stronger than others.
September 6 2024
Strain
When strain is applied to an object, it contains something called strain energy. This energy is all contained through potential energy. But if there is a crack in that object, the strain energy is relaxed and all that tension is gone.
September 7 2024
New metal
John Morty of roles Royce has created Silica glass fibres which can withstand up to 2 million p.s.i. This is not only confined to glass fibres, but it could be open to a whole lot more.
September 8th 2024
Cracks
Glass is a very fragile material when you apply extreme for to it, but if the glass itself is smooth and kept like that it is more durable as most fragile glass have glass that completely shatters because of the weight it is facing.
August 13 2024
Timber and humidaty
Timber
September 14 2024
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics include 4 laws, Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, If two systems are in equilibrium with a third system it's called thermo equilibrium, If there is a disorder in a system it will grow, and if the temperaturetc would theoretically reach absolute 0 everything will freeze even molecules.
September 16 2024
New metal
There are 3 types of rocks, Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic. These rocks are formed by magma, heat or, small little rocks forming together.
September 26 2024
Glue
Glue doesn't only need can be made with simple liquids as well and not needing glue sticks. If you added water onto a solid object, it results in the solid getting wet (reducing energy). Then, if you harden it in some way like freezing, you will require mechanical strain to break it. Meaning, just by adding water, you can make glue.
August 27 2024
Laminated wood
Engineers usually laminate their wood before using them. Laminating wood is when you cut would up into smaller chunks, then glue them together. This allows for a larger volume of wood instead of a set amount of wood, this being another reason why regular wood is not used.
September 29 2024
Fibres
When a material isn't strong enough for a certain job, it is usually infused with a material's fibre to enforce it. This could include wood pulp, one of the most common fibres to infuse into an object.
September 30 2024
Strong materials
Materials with the strongest durability need to be reinforced with fibres carefully packed together, and the mould would be limited.
October 1 2024
Materials
Materials are used in all sorts of ways. They mainly depend on their stiffness and the stress and strain they can take. Even the most floppy and weak materials have a purpose, but not used for everything./af
October 13 2024
Laminated wood
Engineers usually laminate their wood before using them. Laminating wood is when you cut would up into smaller chunks, then glue them together. This allows for a larger volume of wood instead of a set amount of wood, this being another reason why regular wood is not used.
October 14
Tempreture
The temperature of a substance is due to molecules moving. These movements are not consistent and perpetually irregular and in other words completely random.
October 19 2024
Cast Iron
Cast iron was one of the less useful items back then when coke was added to the blast furnace. It was relatively cheap, matching its extremely brittle qualities and low tensile strength.
October 26 2024
Disobible materials
Disposable Materials have a big use in the world. They decreased the incidents of infections and the jobs of chores. This is because after use you would throw them away, examples can be paper, and plastic.
November 14 2024
Silicon
Silicon was once the really usfull until it was replaced. It made semiconductors, which in turn sent man to the moon. Semiconductors make up computors and make the internet. This all worked until it was replaced by germanium.
November 19
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is one of the most common elements on this planet. For, it makes up 78% of the air we breathe. But this element can also be extremely dangerous. This element was planned to be turned into a bomb which would be exxtremley lethal as it sufficates people.
November 20, 2024
Solar system
When the solar system was formed by a supernova, some of the elements could not survive. This made it so scientists could not fill out the peridoc tab le until they found fields that could produce these elements.
December 18 2024
Uranium
Uranium is one of the most dangerous elements on the periodic table, as one neutron can cause a chain reaction, exploding the entire bomb. The element was known as the last element until element 61 was released after its discovery.
January 8 2025
Gamma ray bombs
Gamma radiation can be extremely deadly to humans. On top of burning you alive, they can mess up the chromosomes in your white blood cells, which results in them dying or them developing cancerous tissue.
January 20 20205
Uranium ore
After the development and stir of an ore for uranium that require tedious work and took years, two new elements were formed. Polonium and radium to extremely dangerous elements and containing more radiation than uranium.
March 1
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the lightest element and is highly flammable. It's used in rockets and to make water when combined with oxygen.
March 2 2025
Helium
Helium is a colorless, odorless gas, and it's used in balloons because it's lighter than air.
March 3 2025
Lithium
Lithium is used in rechargeable batteries, like the ones in your phone or laptop.
March 4 2025
Berilium
Beryllium is a lightweight metal used in aerospace and computer industries.
March 5 2025
Boron
Boron is a hard, brittle metal used in making glass and ceramics.
March 6 2025
Carbon
Carbon is the building block of life and can form both diamonds and graphite.
March 7 2025
Nitrogen
Nitrogen makes up 78% of Earth's atmosphere and is used in fertilizers.
March 8 2025
Oxygen
Oxygen is essential for life, and we breathe it to survive.
March 9 2025
Fluorine
Fluorine is a very reactive gas and is found in toothpaste to help prevent cavities.
March 10 2025
Neon
Neon is a gas used in bright neon signs that glow red-orange.
March 11 2025
Sodium
Sodium is a soft, reactive metal found in table salt (sodium chloride).
March 12 2025
Magnesium
Magnesium is a metal used in airplanes and fireworks.
March 13 2025
Aluminum
Aluminum is a lightweight metal used in cans, foil, and airplanes. It is strong and doesn’t rust easily.
March 14 2025
Silicon
Silicon is used to make computer chips and solar panels. It's one of the most common elements in the Earth's crust
March 15 2025
Phospherus
Phosphorus is essential for plants to grow and is used in fertilizers. It can be found in DNA, which is in every living thing.
Sulfur
Sulfur is a yellow solid used in making acids and in volcanoes. It has a strong smell and is often found in hot springs.
March 17 2025
Chlorine
Chlorine is a gas used to disinfect swimming pools and clean water. It’s also in bleach and some plastics.
March 18 2025
Argon
Argon is a gas that doesn’t react with other elements. It's used in light bulbs and to help make metals in welding.
March 19 2025
Potasium
Potassium is a metal found in bananas and is important for your body’s nerves and muscles. It also helps plants grow.
March 20 2025
Calcium
Calcium is important for strong bones and teeth. It’s found in milk, cheese, and other dairy products.
March 21 2025
Scandium
Scandium is a metal used in high-performance sports equipment. It is also found in some light alloys for airplanes.
March 22 2025
Titanium
Titanium is a strong, lightweight metal used in implants and airplanes. It’s resistant to rust and is often used in jewelry.
March 23 2025
Vandium
Vanadium is used to strengthen steel and improve its hardness. It's important for making tools and building materials.
March 24 2025
Chromium
Chromium is used to make stainless steel, which doesn’t rust easily. It’s also used in car bumpers and shiny jewelry.
March 25 2025
Manganese
Manganese is used in making steel stronger. It’s also important for your body’s metabolism.
March 26 2025
Iron
Iron is one of the most used metals in the world. It is also found in red blood cells, which carry oxygen around your body.
March 27 2025
Colbat
Cobalt is used in making batteries, especially for electric cars. It’s also found in some magnets and alloys.
March 28 2025
Nickel
Nickel is used in making coins and stainless steel. It’s also used in rechargeable batteries.
March 29 2025
Copper
Copper is a metal that conducts electricity very well. It is used in wires, plumbing, and pennies.
March 30 2025
Zinc
Zinc is used to prevent iron from rusting. It's also important for the immune system and helps heal wounds.
March 31 2025
Gallium
Gallium is a metal that can melt in your hand. It’s used in electronics like LED lights and computer chips.
April 1 2025
Germanium
Germanium is used in electronics and fiber optics. It’s important for making semiconductors.
April 2 2025
Arsenic
Arsenic is a toxic element that can contaminate water. It has been used in pesticides and wood preservatives.
April 3 2025
Selenium
Selenium is an essential nutrient for your body. It’s also used in solar panels and electronics.
April 4 2025
Bromine
Bromine is a reddish-brown liquid used in making flame retardants. It’s also found in some disinfectants.
April 5 2025
Krypton
Krypton is a colorless gas used in some light bulbs. It’s rare and doesn’t react with other elements easily.
April 14 2025
Rubidium
Rubidium is a soft, silvery metal that reacts quickly with water. It’s used in research and in some specialty batteries.
April 15th 2025
Strontium
Strontium is used in fireworks to create red colors. It’s also used in some medical imaging equipment.
April 16th 2025
Yttrium
Yttrium is used in LED lights and some types of lasers. It’s also important for making superconductors.
April 17 2025
Zirconium
Zirconium is a strong metal used in nuclear reactors. It can withstand high heat without breaking down.
April 18 2025
Niobium
Niobium is used in making strong steel alloys. It’s also used in superconducting magnets.
April 19th 2025
Molybdenum
Molybdenum is used to make steel stronger and more heat-resistant. It’s also important for some chemical reactions.
April 20th 2025
Technetium
Technetium is a radioactive element used in medical scans. It doesn’t naturally occur on Earth and is man-made.
April 21 2025
Ruthenium
Ruthenium is a metal used in electronics and to speed up chemical reactions. It’s also used in jewelry for its shiny finish.
April 22 2025
Rhodium
Rhodium is a shiny, silver-white metal used in catalytic converters to reduce pollution. It’s one of the rarest metals on Earth.
April 23 2025
Palladium
Palladium is a metal used in car exhaust systems to clean air. It’s also used in jewelry and electronics.
April 24 2025
Silver
Silver is a precious metal used in jewelry, coins, and mirrors. It has great electrical conductivity and is also used in electronics.
April 25 2025
Cadmium
Cadmium is a toxic metal that is used in rechargeable batteries. It’s also found in some pigments and coatings.
April 26 2025
Indium
Indium is a soft metal used in making touchscreens and flat-panel displays. It’s also used in solar panels.
April 27 2025
Tin
Tin is used to coat other metals to prevent rust. It’s also found in cans that store food and in some alloys.
April 28 2025
Antimony
April 29 2025
Tellurium
Tellurium is a brittle metal used in making semiconductors and solar panels. It’s also used in making alloys to improve their strength.
April 30 2025
Iodine
Iodine is a purple-black solid used in medicine to disinfect wounds. It’s also important for thyroid health in humans.
August 18 2025
Strong ST
The strongest known crystalline structure is that of diamond, where each carbon atom is covalently bonded to four others in a rigid, three-dimensional tetrahedral lattice. This unique structure makes it the hardest known natural substance, as it is extremely resistant to scratching and deformation. Additionally, the tightly packed, strong bonds give diamond exceptional thermal conductivity and make it the least compressible material in nature.
August 19 2025
Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber is a lightweight material made of extremely thin strands of carbon atoms that are twisted together and can be woven into a fabric. This material is five times stronger and twice as stiff as steel, with a lower density, giving it an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. As a result of these properties, it's widely used in high-performance applications like aircraft, sports equipment, and high-end automotive parts.
August 20 2025
Graphene
Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, similar to a sheet of chicken wire. It is the strongest, lightest, and most conductive material known to man, with its tensile strength being over 200 times greater than steel. This unique combination of properties makes graphene promising for a wide range of applications, including flexible electronics, advanced batteries, and medical sensors.
August 22 2025
Tensile strength of Carbon Fiber
The tensile strength of carbon fiber can vary significantly depending on its grade and manufacturing process, but it's typically 3,500 MPa to over 7,000 MPa (3.5 to 7.0 GPa). For context, this is far stronger than most standard steel grades, which have a tensile strength ranging from 400 to 1,200 MPa. This exceptional strength-to-weight ratio is why it's so valuable in industries like aerospace and high-performance automotive manufacturing.
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