Why are diamonds hard to destroy?

Diamond is an allotrope of carbon and is an extremely hard material. In diamond, the carbon atoms are arranged in the form of an octagon and therefore there is very little space in between these atoms. This makes diamond an extremely strong metal and is hard to crush. The compact structure of the carbon atoms and their alienation is perhaps the reason behind making this metal strong and hard.

It is often said that diamonds cannot be cut by any other material other than diamond itself. This is true and therefore, people use this stone for occasional uses like romantic purposes. Diamond is used as testimony to love because of its extreme beauty and longevity. The stone owes its beauty to the phenomenon of total internal reflection. Light enters this stone from the surface and suffers a total internal reflection and therefore the glitter in diamond is produced.

The hardness of a substance is a measure of it’s resistively when it is scratched. Hardness is measured by Moh’s scale. For the eighth metal topaz, the number is Moh’s Scale is extremely high. But the number rises exponentially as it reached diamond. This makes diamond the hardest of all metals.


Tags: , , , , , , , , ,