A material is selected for a particular use depending on its ability to withstand forces it may be subject to. A given material has some attributes that defines it’s characteristic. The characteristics of a given material determines its suitability for a certain work.
Some of the important physical characteristics of materials includes:
Strength
This is the ability of a material to resist breakage when under stretching, compression or shearing force. A material with much strength can be able to withstand a large force without breaking.
Stiffness
This is the resistance a material offers to forces which tend to change its shape or size or both. Stiff materials are not flexible and resist bending.
Ductility
It is characteristic of a material that give it a structure that can lead to permanent change of size and shape.
Ductile materials are material which will elongate considerably under stretching forces and undergo plastic deformation until they break .
Examples of ductile materials may include:
- Lead
- Copper
- Wrote iron
- Plasticine
Ductile materials can be rolled into sheets, drawn into wires or worked into other useful shapes without breaking. They are usually very useful in making things like staples, rivets and paper clips
Brittleness
It is the characteristics of a material that makes it tend to break just after the elastic limit is reached .
Brittle materials are fragile and do not undergoes any noticeable extension on stretching but snap suddenly without warning.
brittle materials can only absorb a limited amount of energy before breaking.
Examples of brittle materials includes:
- Bricks
- Glass
- cast iron board
- Dry biscuits
- ceramic
- graphite
- diamond
- crystal
- Porcelain
- Tin-rich Bronze
- Sodium Chloride
Elasticity
Elasticity is the ability of a material to recover it’s original shape and size after the force causing it’s deformation is removed. Materials that regain their shape after deformation under force are said to be elastic.
Elastic materials recovers to their previous shape after enduring deformations like compression and expansion
A material that does not recover but is permanently deformed is said to be plastic.examples of elastic materials includes:
- Rubber
- springs
- wires
- Trampoline
- Rubber Bands
- Elastin
- Nylon
- Lycra
- Gum
- Wool
- Silicon
- Polyester
- Balloons