this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
248 points (97.7% liked)
hopeposting
876 readers
2 users here now
Proof of the indomitable human spirit.
Rules:
- Posts must inspire hope or highlight the beauty of existence
- Posts and comments harassing or antagonizing a real person will be removed
- Posts mentioning religious topics are allowed but religion should not be the main point of the post. E.g. “God’s beautiful world” is fine because of the “beautiful world” part, but “God loves you” isn’t because religion is the focal point
- Posts and comments judging group of people in negative way based on stereotype will be removed.
- No posts with toxic positivity. All human emotions are valid.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Well as a structural material gold is not good due to most metals being better in every way but for example gold has a tensile strenght of 120MPa while for wood 120MPa seems to be the upper limit after a bit of googling(varies wildly by species, density, moisture and perhaps most importantly grain orientation) so in the context of a same size/thickness etc violin i would wager that the gold one would be quite bit harder to break than the wooden one
The problem is not that either breaks, it is that gold will simply yield (deform permanently) easily. Note that 120 MPa is for volume (cross section), where gold is indeed slightly better (I assumed it would be worse).
However, if you make it thinner than the wood reference, the stress goes up, quickly making it weaker than the wood reference. On a side note, per weight the relevant value is the [en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/specific_strenght](specific strength), where you will find wood way above copper, which is about like gold. Pine wood is even above most alloys because of its low density.