• Question: could you compress something so much that it gets so hard that it would be bullet proof and practically indestructible?

    Asked by Craig is beast to Craig, Flavia, Giuditta, Jack, Sheona on 17 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Giuditta Perversi

      Giuditta Perversi answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Actually, pressing something down does not assure you that you are making it harder!
      Materials tend to become denser and harder, that’s for sure, and if you keep going they will melt at some point. Diamond it’s created under high pressures and high temperatures, for instance.
      Making something bulletproof, though, it’s a different business in material chemistry!

      The issue with bullets it’s that they arrive with a really high temperature on the tip and a high velocity. While making a whole layer of bulk diamond to cover a wall would be really expensive and seriously complicated, what you prefer to have are “softer” materials that can actually distribute the shock of the impact much better, so that you don’t break them!

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