Material Strength
These sponges skeletons have amazing geometric configurations, which have been extensively studied for their stiffness, yield strength, and minimal crack propagation. An aluminum tube (aluminum and glass have similar elastic modulus) of equal length, effective thickness, and radius, but homogeneously distributed, has 1/100th the stiffness.
Read more about this topic: Venus' Flower Basket
Famous quotes containing the words material and/or strength:
“If someone took the finest marble and knew how to shape it artfully: Prometheus’ material was lowly clay, but his statues walked.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)