Sodium Chloride Crystal Cleavage - Animation
An animation shows why a crystal of sodium chloride breaks along cleavage planes.
solids
Ice Bomb
A cast iron bomb is completely filled with ice water, then placed into a dry-ice/acetone slush and covered with a wooden box. When the water in the bomb freezes, the cast iron bomb explodes, breaking into several pieces, and destroying the box in which it was placed.
Simulation of Dislocations in Metals - Introduction
Soap bubbles in a raft form grains of close-packed arrays with various orientations relative to each other.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Diamond Scratching Glass
A piece of glass is scratched with a diamond-tipped stylus, showing that diamond is harder than glass.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Shattering a Silicon Wafer
A silicon wafer is flexed until the wafer shatters.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Peeling Layers of Molybdenum Disulfide
A piece of tape pressed against a sample of molybdenum sulfide will peel off layers of the sample. Additional tape can be used to cleave the peeled sample hundreds of times.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Cutting Lithium
Lithium, a very soft metal, can be cut with a knife.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Grinding Graphite
Graphite can easily be crushed into small pieces.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Grinding Magnesium
Magnesium metal is not easily ground or crushed.
Hardness of Solid Substances - Grinding Sulfur
Sulfur can easily be ground to a fine powder.