There are plenty of words we throw around in everyday speech that take on different, much more specific meanings when they’re used in a technical context. One place you’ll find a bunch of them is in the realm of material science.This fantastic primer video from Real Engineering highlights a few in particular: stiff, tough, strong, ductile, brittle, and hard. It’s a great rundown for newbs, or refresher for anyone who hasn’t seen Young’s modulus in a while. View full post on YoutubeThe video provides a lot of valuable context, but the basic vocab list breaks down roughly like this: Stiff — resists deformation Tough — resists failure, even after deformingStrong — resists both deformation and failureDuctile — deforms before it breaksBrittle — breaks before it deformsHard — resists dents, scratches, and other permanent changes under compressive forceThese qualities aren’t necessarily good or bad because different problems need different solutions. What good is a spring that doesn’t have some give to it? So the next time you use one of these words, just take a second to stop and think about what it actually means. Source: Real Engineering
