how do scientists determine material properties, e.g tensile strength, hardness, thermal coefficient, etc?
In: Engineering
All sorts of ways! We have many machines to help do it too.
We pull it slowly to see how much force it takes to stretch the material, this is tensile strength.
We smack it fast to see it’s impact resistance.
We zap it will electricity to see how much and how fast it gpes through it
We heat it up to see how much energy it takes to melt it. Then cool it down to see how it turns solid. We even chop it up to see what shapes are made inside using microscopes (different shapes and patterns can br made depending on how fast you cool it).
Just a few of many many techniques we use to find material properties.
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