Steel is much stronger than bone in absolute terms.
Putting in some typical dimensions and material properties we find that the stresses in a bone made from titanium alloy, for example, would be about 1.3 times higher than in a bone of the same weight, made from bone. But the titanium alloy is 5 times stronger so obviously its safety factor is much higher.
A cubic inch of bone can bear a load of 19,000 lbs, which is roughly the weight of five standard pickup trucks. This means that bone is about four times as strong as concrete.
The properties of bones cannot really be compared to other similarly hard materials in our environment like wood, steel, stone, etc. Bone tissue is equal in tensile strength to steel, yet is ten times more flexible and as light as wood. Additionally, our bones contain bone cells (Osteocytes) and blood vessels.
Comparison of Bone Structure
Diamonds: While extremely hard, they are not comparable as they are fully composed of carbon atoms in a crystal lattice, offering different properties. Steel: Known for tensile strength, steel is stronger than bone in many aspects; however, bone is designed to be lightweight and flexible.
The aspect of dental implants that makes them so durable and effective, “osseointegration,” occurs when bone cells attach themselves directly to the titanium surface of the dental implant.
By weight, a bone is actually stronger than steel since a bar of steel of comparable size would weigh four or five times as much while having about the same compressive strength. A cubic inch of bone can in principle bear a load of 19,000 lbs (8,626 kg) making it about four times as strong as concrete.
Your bones carry that weight every minute of every day as par for the course. Now, consider your teeth. Although paper-thin, the enamel that covers your teeth is much stronger than your bones. In fact, the only substance on earth that is stronger than enamel is diamond.
Could your house take a bullet for you? Clad it with a new type of modified wood, and it might, says Alex Lau, co-founder and executive chairman of InventWood. The US-based company has developed Superwood - a modified wood it claims is stronger than steel.
A cubic inch of bone can support the weight of nearly five cars. Your skeleton is incredibly strong—quietly handling stress far beyond what we notice, every single day.
Human bones are tough – even tougher to break in the transverse, crosswise direction than to split in the longitudinal, lengthwise direction.
One study from Harvard University found that the skeleton makes up 14.84% of a person's body weight. Whereas, by contrast, skeletal muscle constitutes around 40% of your total body weight.
🦴 Did you know, the human thigh bone, or femur, is stronger than concrete? It can support up to 30 times the weight of an average human.
Titanium is considered the most biocompatible metal – not harmful or toxic to living tissue – due to its resistance to corrosion from bodily fluids. This ability to withstand the harsh bodily environment is a result of the protective oxide film that forms naturally in the presence of oxygen.
The rule of thumb is titanium is as strong as steel but as heavy as aluminum. How much force it would take to break a sheet like that in two is hard to say since titanium would bend before it snapped. If you hit it hard enough you would just punch a hole.
Bulletproof vests are but one piece of body armor that protects police officers day-in-day-out. They are commonly made from a material called Kevlar, which apart from also being found in military grade body armor, can appear in frying pans, parachutes, sneakers, tennis rackets and smartphones.
Maryland-based InventWood has created a high-strength “Superwood.” A US company has engineered a new type of wood that it says has up to 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, while also being up to six times lighter.
Tooth enamel is the outermost layer of your teeth. It's the superhero armor that protects your teeth from everyday wear and tear. Enamel is even tougher than your bones! That's right, it's harder than any other substance in your body.
Aging: As you grow older, your tooth enamel thins. This exposes more of the underlying dentin, which is yellowish. Genetics: Natural tooth color, brightness and translucency vary from person to person. Dental trauma: Falls, car crashes and sports-related injuries can cause trauma that results in tooth discoloration.
Teeth lack living cells in enamel, so they can't remodel or regenerate. Bones, by contrast, contain living tissue that constantly repairs itself.
Graphene is 100 times stronger than steel, more conductive than copper and transparent yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it.
Bone outperforms reinforced concrete by several orders of magnitude in compression and tension strength tests. Why? The microarchitecture of bone is complex and built to withstand extreme forces. Moreover, bone is a living tissue that is continuously breaking down and forming new bone to adapt to mechanical stresses.
Despite being erosion-resistant and incredibly strong, titanium plates can lead to bone embrittlement once bones are healed as they are significantly more rigid than bones.