It depends a little bit on what you mean by "heaviest" (atomic weight or weight of natural ore) and "strongest" (compression or tensile strength), but the usual answer to this question is tungsten, which has the heaviest weight of natural ore and the strongest tensile strength of any naturally-occurring metal. Its compression strength is also the strongest. Tungsten is also notable for its extremely high melting point, which is why it's useful for incandescent lightbulbs.
If you meant atomic weight, the answer is plutonium, which is the heaviest element that occurs in nature in any appreciable quantities. But it's not really especially strong.
Tungsten was actually named for its high ore weight; tung sten means "heavy stone". Because it's so heavy and difficult to melt, tungsten was not widely used until the 19th century.
No comments:
Post a Comment