- NEW!
Help answer this question below.
Let's compare the tensile strength of each material:
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, compact bone specimens have been found to have tensile strength around 20,000 psi (pounds per square inch).
"Mild" steel such as AISI 1020 Hot Rolled, on the other hand, has a tensile strength of 70,000 psi, and alloy steels that are heat treated can have tensile strengths of over 200,000 psi, ten times stronger than bone.
However, this is not the whole story. Steel is about 4.5 times heavier than bone, so bone is actually stronger than mild steel on a per-weight basis. Engineers are taught ways if using lighter, weaker materials (like wood or bone) and making them behave as if they were stronger than steel. The college course in which you learn this is called "Strength of Materials" or "Mechanics of Materials".
1) "The human thigh bone is hollow but is the strongest bone in the body. Ounce for ounce, it has a greater pressure tolerance and bearing strength than a cast steel rod of equivalent size."
Source:
http://www.allbusiness.com/manufacturing/fabricated-metal-product-manufacturing/129191-1.html
2) "Thus, the mechanism responsible for bone’s strength at the molecular scale also explains how bone can remain so strong—even though it contains those many tiny cracks required for its renewal.
This could prove very useful information to civil engineers, who have always used materials like steel that gain strength through density. Nature creates strength in bone by taking advantage of the gaps that ensure continuous material renewal, which themselves are made possible by the material’s hierarchical structure.
“Engineers typically over-dimension structures in order to make them robust. Nature creates robustness by hierarchical structures,”"
Source and further information:
http://www.physorg.com/news107436882.html
Sticks and stones and weed and bones.
Are all human bones the same size?
by Answerbag Staff on April 8th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
What is the longest and strongest bone in the body?
by Answerbag Staff on January 22nd, 2010
| 1 person likes this
What is the logical nickname for one end of the humerus?
by mama 'oh yeaaaah' cass on August 17th, 2011
| 2 people like this
Do you want to bone Bones?
by Have A Nice Day on September 9th, 2011
| 4 people like this
Why didn't my Orthopedist give me knee braces for my knock knees?
by alyssa on September 29th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
You're reading Which is stronger, bone or steel?
Comments
great answer
by 512souro on May 3rd, 2005