Whatever happened to the concept of comparing like materials! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
I suspect steel is both stronger AND tougher than brass. But I'm no metallurgist. So I really don't know that for a fact.
We were not having success with that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> If you go to the link in one of my earlier posts that will take you to a materials engineering site with a big graph on the page - hover your mouse over metals and alloys - you will see that brass is on the tougher side of the graph (further to the right than stainless steels) and steels are on the higher side for greater strength (stronger than brass). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
So because brass is tougher, it would absorb impact better than steel and because steel is stronger, it would resist breaking under a gradually increasing load better than brass. Correct?
No. Its because steel is more brittle because it is harder and stronger...Brass is tough because is is softer and more malleable than steel but less strong. Strong steel would break before brass would but it would require much more force to bend it to its breaking point (hence - it is stronger).
If you took a 1" thick bar of each and stuck it in a vice and started dropping weight onto the end...Think about what would happen. The brass would give much easier but rather than break it would simply bend under the load. The 154CM would take more weight before it started to bend but rather than bend as far as the brass, it would simply snap in two (but it would require more weight to do so). this tells us that the brass is tougher - can be beaten and bent and who knows what but will resist breaking...The steel will take much more force to manipulate but instead of bending and deforming to take the hits - it will simply snap in two. This is because the steel is stronger (requires more force to bend or deform) and it is harder (more brittle).
Also- if steel got stronger as it got harder - the same rule should apply to other materials...and that would make titanium, diamond, ceramic and glass stronger than the steels we are talking about - which we know isn't the case. There is a reason steels are usually in the 58-60 hardness range - much above that and they become brittle and more prone to cracking and breaking(but harder).
