Yttrium2
Perpetual Question Machine
![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif)
Posts: 1104
Registered: 7-2-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
I broke a piece of metal - what was it?
why did it break so easily? it looked like brass, it was about an 1/8th of an inch thick.
Wondering, what is an easy way of determining the metal, and or its constituent alloys?
-- and last but most importantly, (I almost forgot) -- what about the metal made it break so easily? What about its structure, composition, --
physical form...
[Edited on 6/3/2020 by Yttrium2]
|
|
symboom
International Hazard
![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif)
Posts: 1143
Registered: 11-11-2010
Location: Wrongplanet
Member Is Offline
Mood: Doing science while it is still legal since 2010
|
|
I think aluminum copper alloy is brittle
|
|
B(a)P
International Hazard
![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif)
Posts: 1139
Registered: 29-9-2019
Member Is Offline
Mood: Festive
|
|
Can you send a picture? Particularly of the fracture? Have you tried a scratch test to assess hardness?
|
|
sodium_stearate
Hazard to Others
![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif)
Posts: 255
Registered: 22-4-2011
Location: guard duty at the checkpoint
Member Is Offline
Mood: No mask.
|
|
please post a picture
A picture would help explain a lot.
Have a close look at the fracture.
If the metal is some kind of zinc alloy (aka "pot metal")
then it would be relatively weak and fairly easily
broken by hand.
When that type of metal fractures, it most always has
a distinctive grainy look where it breaks.
So, please let us see it. The color and the type of
break can help explain a lot.
"Opportunity is missed by most people
because it is dressed in overalls and it
looks like work" T.A. Edison
|
|
Heptylene
Hazard to Others
![*](images/xpblue/star.gif) ![*](images/xpblue/star.gif)
Posts: 319
Registered: 22-10-2016
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Try to dissolve it in HCl. There solution can have a color indicative of it's composition.
|
|