fahrquad Posted December 28, 2015 Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 Diamond is the hardest, but not the strongest (for the fracture points mentioned above) , nor densest . Heat treated steel can cut diamonds. Depleted uranium is used in tank busting projectiles because of its density, since it has the highest weight per cubic inch of any readily available metals. There are literally hundreds of grades, alloys, tempers, etc... of steel, a low carbon form of Iron, available. Tungsten Carbide is very hard and is more than adequate for most cutting applications. It really boils down to what specific application you intend for the material to select the best available choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fahrquad Posted December 28, 2015 Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 What could possible be the hardest strongest most durable substance?Going back to the original question, Diamond is the hardest, but not the most durable. Diamonds, being a modified form of Carbon, will burn at high enough temperatures. Durability depends on what yardstick you are using. If you are looking for something that lasts for thousands, millions, or even billions of years without changing, Gold, Platinum, and Rhodium are a good choice. Most of the metallic ores are stable and have been in the same form for a few billion years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotBrad Posted December 30, 2015 Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 Going back to the original question, Diamond is the hardest, but not the most durable. Diamonds, being a modified form of Carbon, will burn at high enough temperatures. Durability depends on what yardstick you are using. If you are looking for something that lasts for thousands, millions, or even billions of years without changing, Gold, Platinum, and Rhodium are a good choice. Most of the metallic ores are stable and have been in the same form for a few billion years.I think that there can be no definitive answer to the question without a stated application that can give us a good idea as to what characteristics will be valued most, but as for me, I believe that alloyed titanium is a good bet for most applications if you remove it's cost and the rarity of the substance. But given an unlimited supply of all materials it gives what I would consider the best combination of weight, strength(tensile, compression, and shear) and relative reliability. Adding some environmental factors such as oxidizing agents or some other highly reactive substance would reduce the effectiveness just like any other non-noble metal. I like the version of the future where we got to the moon and harvest all the titanium that forms the grey spots and use that for an aerospace alloy that greatly improves the cost of ship-building so we can colonize mars and beyond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fahrquad Posted December 31, 2015 Report Share Posted December 31, 2015 Considering that the moon formed after a Mars sized proto-planet collided with a Venus sized proto-planet forming the Earth and the Moon, the chemical composition of both is nearly identical (not sure about the heavy metal content of the smaller and lighter Moon). As I said in #18 above, "It really boils down to what specific application you intend for the material to select the best available choice", so I think we are in agreement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.