GOODBYE MATERIAL SCIENCE

So I took my material science final exam.   It was....ok...

I had to decipher my professor's questions sometimes- they were a bit vague-but all in all I think it went pretty smoothly.

If "smoothly" means deriving your own equations because you forgot them
[be true to your units, people! It saved my hiney!!]
and making up baloney about how to make a polymer more ductile
and trying to come up with the perfect material for an ice pick off of the top of your head.

I chose diamond.  

(It was the only thing I could think of that had the hardness I was looking for, would be eco-friendly, and doesn't corrode.  I usually google these things, so I was having a really hard time coming up with a material.)

Don't tell me that a diamond ice pick is ridiculous-- because price was not one of the things I had to consider!  {Haha Jordan, the econ side of me lost!}  I thought I was being pretty creative, actually.  Hey, my first thought was carbon nanotubes...

Diamond ice pick. Ha.

Well, even with the mediocre final, I got to sell back my textbook for a whopping $82!

{And no, I don't need the thing for reference, I google my material requirements, remember?? Doesn't that make you feel comfortable about today's engineers who are designing your bridges, dams, airplanes, and prosthetic limbs?? Wikipedia, baby.} 

I felt good about life after that.  Goodbye material science.

WHY YOUR PAPER CLIP DOESN'T STRAIGHTEN PROPERLY

Have you ever unbent a paper clip and tried to get all of the little kinks out? It doesn't work. This has irked me for ages.

So I know you are DYING to find out why.....

I learned today in a materials science lab that when a metal is deformed, (flattening, folding, bending, hammering, steam roller-ing, jack hammer-ing, anvil smashing, sumo wrestling, karate chopping, alien laser beaming, neutron star colliding. You know, every day things.) the metal actually becomes stronger.

Yes, stronger. {Bear with me, this is a little counterintuitive.}

So when you unbend your paper clip and try with all of the strength in your human hands to straighten out those annoying curves and zizags, you are actually making it harder on yourself. Recall that "bending" falls under the category of metal deformation- thus hardening the material.

Now, things in this world are never free...

You always must pay a price. Same with this metal-deformation-hardening technique. (FYI: The engineering term is "cold work") So when you harden the material you give up ductility, or the flexible nature of the metal. It snaps easier. That is why the paper clip breaks if you bend it back and forth too many times.

Interesting, eh?

HOW I AM GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD

bi·o·mi·met·ics: noun.
The study of the structure and function of biological systems as models for the design and engineering of materials and machines.

For example, see this gecko?


It sticks to walls with millions of tiny hairs on the bottom of its feet. How do the hairs stick? By the weakest intermolecular force that exists: the london dispersion force.

Amazing.

"Can you imagine duct tape that would never lose its stickiness or a Band-Aid that doesn't leave sticky residue?"

{Courtesy of my materials science textbook by William P. Callister, Jr.}