what is. . .?

[stellanoir]

the hardest material on the planet?

No Viagra jokes please.

My kid is working on a project and I first said diamond but that's crystalline. As for metals, I thought either iron or tungsten steel.

We googled around and mostly got erectile disfunction crap or people trying to sell stuff.

Does anyone have a clue?

Any assistance would be truly appreciated.

Oh. . .and Swedish Fish needn't swim on this thread as they are so swishingly easy.

[notadmblnd]

1. palladium?

nt

[Richardo]

3. The Hollywood Palladium?

[Dr.Phool]

2. Other than a diamond

Industrial hard Chrome.

[johnnie]

4. I keep coming up with diamond

Second would be granite.

[stellanoir]

5. thanks you guys

we'll go google the stuff you suggested.

He's writing his own video game and needs stuff for defense against various elements so this will help tremendously.

You're all better than any search engine on the planet !!!

[Midlodemocrat]

6. This is the google page I got when I googled

"hardest material on earth"

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-19,GGLD:en&q=%22hardest+material+on+earth%22


Hope that helps.

[AlCzervik]

7. try looking up alumina ceramic

[Debi]

8. Have you ever had a Swedish Fish left in the car in January in Iowa?

Now that's hard!

What about Titanium?

[stellanoir]

13. the closest I've ever come to

a Swedish Fish was when I purchased some for one of my kid's friends. Yes I am a total pushover.

Thanks for the titanium suggestion though.

[short bus president]

9. why don't crystalline structures count?

in addition to diamond, I always think of tooth enamel and basalt as extremely hard materials.

[stellanoir]

12. well they certainly count

but my kid needed at least four of them for the video game he's brainstorming to defend against the four elements.

That's all. Far be it from me to minimize the undeniable power of the crystalline structure. Though I'm not into diamonds at all, for two simple reasons. . .the DeBeers cartel and then undeniable fact that we've got a gazillion far more rare minerals here in a wide array of colors and most chicks want over priced vanilla. . .?

Plus energetically they're just random intensifiers that make most women greedy so are a fairly foolish choice to commemorate a committed relationship. Go figure.

[short bus president]

10. dupe post

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. I would have said Diamond

But if it has to be a metal. I would think one of the "Super Alloys"

[lastknowngood]

14. depleted uranium I believe

n/t

[Squeech]

15. Diamond is correct

Because every atom in it is chemically bonded to four other atoms, and the aggregate strength of those bonds is really hard to break. This is where crystal structure really rules. (It's gonna be totally cool when they can be grown artificially, and turned into structural materials for things like airplanes.)

Other crystalline minerals are up there too; I think carborundum is ranked second hardest. The heavy metals AFAIK aren't really hard, they're actually pretty malleable; they just seem hard because they're so heavy.