Strongest material known to man

Diamond... but maybe in a different sense. :confused:

A quick google suggests that a new 'aerogel' is the strongest material in the world and a lot lighter apparantly, but it may just be marketing spin. :)
 
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Iirc, theres a material called 'carbon nanotubing' which is outrageously strong (magnitudes stronger than steel). The limit is that they can only make them in lengths of around a mm at the moment, so its not much use until they can make it long enough to weave into thread.
 
Spie said:
Define strength.

Diamond is the hardest.
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tensile strength, presumably.

edit - or maybe compressibility. Is that different?

EDIT 2 - according to Dr google, diamond is at the top of "The Mohs Scale of Hardness" which is basically about what can scratch what. Clearly they cant take much compression though, as they shatter when you hit them with a hammer. (As we all love to do ;))
 
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Grrrrr said:
Spider silk is up there along with carbon nanotubes. I'll have a quick google
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No, I think its a myth... I'm sure steel has a higher tensile strengh. Nanotubing is what google said.
 
Grrrrr said:
Spider silk is up there along with carbon nanotubes. I'll have a quick google
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I read that the US military were using synthetic spider silk in ballistic vests as it apparently absorbed / dissipated ballistic energy far more that Kevlar. I think that was in Focus magazine some years back
 
Royality said:
No, I think its a myth... I'm sure steel has a higher tensile strengh. Nanotubing is what google said.
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From Wiki:

Spider silk is a fibre secreted by spiders. Spider silk is a remarkably strong material. Its tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade steel — according to Nature (see reference below), spider silk has a tensile strength of roughly 1.3 GPa, while one source [1] lists a tensile strength for one form of steel at 1.65 GPa. However, spider silk is much less dense than steel; its ratio of tensile strength to density is perhaps 5 times better than steel — as strong as aromatic nylon filaments, such as DuPont's Kevlar.
 
For reference, I found out about nanotubes while reading about the idea of the space elevator a while ago. Very Scifi-ie, but actually possible if they can make hard enough materials. (Hence the research into nanotubes ;)). Give them a couple more decades and it may be possible.
 
Carbon nanotubes is the strongest thats why they are thinking of building a skylift with one, very long one.
 
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