Ahh, of course... I hadn't thought of rope and string. So things that
are very flexible may not be malleable because they'll just spring back
to their previous shape? I think I'll check a book out of the library
at school on Monday and try to straighten all this stuff out.

chem

ps - nice web page. Pictured you as being older.

Tim Williams wrote:
"chem" wrote in message
...

But I can understand that a malleable metal isn't necessarily going to
be ductile as well.

not even sure I'm making sense...


I get what you mean... like concrete is 5 or 10 times stronger (or more?
I forget) in compression than tension. Of course it doesn't deform, it
just breaks.. so think of it as the yield point instead.
Conversely, a piece of string or rope can be very strong in tension, but
for the life of it won't hold any compression at all. (Of course, that's
because it's long and flexible, so nowhere near the same idea, but... you
know what I mean... right?...)

Tim

--
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