eli5 – Watching Olympic weightlifting. Those bars literally bend and bounce with the weights on either side. How don’t those bars ever become brittle and snap (at huge risk to the athlete)?

Question

I understand the bars are metal, which is strong, but metal can eventually get brittle too. Sure the Olympics probably can afford new bars the whole time, but what about old gyms etc.? I’m just amazed how those bars never break and hurt people. Watching that guy do the world record deadline, that bar was like a boomerang shape at points.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Metals are known for being malleable so metal will bend long before it snaps. During very heavy lifts the metal bar can flex a bit but usually returns to its original state cause there’s some elasticity to it, sort of like a spring. But if you push it too far it’ll flex and not return to its original shape, giving you a bent bar. Snapping in half isn’t likely since metal usually has a good capacity for flexing and bending. The only case where it may snap is if it’s very rusted, because then there is a chemical change to the metal so it loses that elasticity that makes it malleable. Something like wood on the other hand is much more brittle and would likely snap.