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Asked by MOFF to Martin, James, Elizabeth, Martin, Rob on 10 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Soph, OLI, Rosie Roo, Dragon girl, I like Grapes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
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Martin Ward answered on 10 Mar 2015:
Most of our really hard materials are crystals of one sort or another. Crystals are materials that are very ordered where its atoms and molecules are joined together strongly in different directions – this is what makes the material hard. The hardest material that we know of is diamond, and this is a crystal form of carbon – the same stuff as coal and graphite in your pencil!
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James Coombs OBrien answered on 11 Mar 2015:
Like Martin has said Diamond is the hardest material we know off. Its amazing to think that is just made of carbon but because it arranged in a certain way it is so tough.
We don’t only use diamonds for jewellery but also for cutting very tough things (because they are so hard!). We attach them to machine like drills with diamond tips as well as other cutting equipment. These diamonds aren’t naturally made but are grown by us to be used in industry.
Thanks a lot for your question
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Elizabeth Cooper answered on 16 Mar 2015:
The hardest most common material known is diamond. Diamond is made up entirely of the element carbon.
However work is being completed at the minute on another chemical wurtzite boron nitride. It has a similar structure to diamond, but is made up of different atoms. Lab work completed by scientist showed that wurtzide boron nitride would withstand 18 per cent more stress than diamond.
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Robert Woolfson answered on 16 Mar 2015:
Diamond is definitely the hardest but because it’s so expensive we try and use other materials when we can.
The other type of materials that are really hard are very special mixtures of different metals. I was reading recently that they’re making a car to break the landspeed record, trying to go over 1000 miles an hour. They’re making it from a special type of aluminium with bits of zinc, copper and magnesium mixed in. It’s the same kind of material they use to make satellites and other things in space.
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