What Makes Spider Webs Tough As Steel 76
sciencehabit writes "A new analysis reveals the intricacies of spider web design, showing how the unique properties of its silk turn webs into flexible yet strong traps. Computer simulations reveal that heavy forces spread over the entire net rather than stay local. Real spider silk can be either stretchy or stiff at different times, which produces threads that flex and then snap in just the right way to avoid wrecking nearby spokes."
Diamond (Score:3, Funny)
I think all this research is just skirting around the "real" material engineering question: What makes diamonds the hardest metal?
Re:Spiders have always fascinated me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Diamond (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Diamond (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Smack yourself with steel and then a spider web (Score:4, Funny)
Steel is really soft. They make wool out of it.
Re:Diamond (Score:5, Funny)
chemistry is hard
Re:Smack yourself with steel and then a spider web (Score:3, Funny)
What Makes Spider Webs Tough As Steel (Score:2, Funny)
Spiders.
Next!
Re:Diamond (Score:2, Funny)
What about chuck norris? He's plenty hard!
He's tough all right, but he's only hard when he's around Ted Haggard.
Re:Diamond (Score:3, Funny)