Materials Engineering and Exploring Properties

Materials Engineering and Exploring Properties — page 1
A WORLD OF MATERIALS We can see the work of materials engineers all around us Many industries rely on the expertise of materials engineers Civil engineers couldn’t design buildings aviation engineers couldn’t build aircraft and electronics engineers couldn’t make smartphones if it weren’t for materials engineers designing and testing the materials that go into each and every product Making things Every object we use is made of at least one material That’s what a material is something from which a thing can be made Materials in their natural state from which useful products are made are called raw materials Some raw materials just have to be shaped to make them useful such as stone for a building and wood to make furniture But most materials have had to be altered in some way Metals plastics and fabrics are all materials that have been processed from raw materials Metals are extracted from rock ores plastics are made from chemicals found in petroleum and fabrics have to be woven from natural and human-made materials Strength is an important characteristic of the materials we choose for building 4