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Diamond is known to be one of the strongest materials on earth. It is indeed one of the toughest natural substances we know. However, there are many substances that are stronger than diamonds.
Strength, hardness, toughness and durability are not the same thing. Diamond is known to be extremely hard and that doesn’t make it strongest in every aspect. Some materials on earth can bend more, absorb more force, or resist cracks better than diamond.
Here are 5 natural materials that are stronger than diamonds in some manner.
Is Diamond Really the Strongest Material?
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Property
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What it Means
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Hardness
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How well a material can resist scratching
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Strength
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How much force a material can take before it breaks
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Toughness
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How much energy can a material absorb before it begins to crack
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Durability
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How long can a material last during normal wear and tear.
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Top 5 Strongest Natural Materials on Earth
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Rank
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Natural Material
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Known For
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1
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Lonsdaleite
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Extreme hardness
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2
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Wurtzite Boron Nitride
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It is formed during volcanic eruptions
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3
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Limpet teeth
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Made of goethite fibers
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4
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Darwin's bark spider silk
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Toughness and flexibility
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5
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Nacre (mother of pearl)
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Crack resistance
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What is the Difference Between Hardness and Strength?
To put it in simple terms, hardness simply means how tough it is to scratch something. For example if you drag a sharp object across a material and it doesn’t scratch then that means the material is hard.
Strength on the other hand simply means how much force an object can bear before it bends, deforms or breaks. When a material is strong then it can hold a very heavy load.
When the toughness of an object is mentioned then it means how much energy an object can withstand before it snaps. A tough material can take hits and still stay in one piece.
Here is a simple example to understand this better:
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Diamond is extremely hard. You cannot scratch it easily.
Spider silk is extremely tough for how light it is.
Nacre is very good at stopping cracks.
What is the Hardest Natural Material on Earth?
Diamond is still known as the hardest naturally occurring mineral on our planet. It is measured using something known as the Mohs scale.
This scale ranks minerals from 1 to 10 depending on how well they resist scratching. Diamond sits at the very top with a score of 10. This means a diamond can scratch almost anything, but it rarely gets scratched by something.