Metals Vocabulary

What is the reactivity series?

A series of metals in order of reactivity.

What is an alloy?

A combination of two or more metallic elements.

What is annealing?

Heating and slow cooling of metal to remove stresses.

What is bronze?

A copper alloy with up to one-third tin.

What is brass?

A copper-zinc alloy.

What is corrosion?

The process of metal or material deterioration.

What are dislocations?

Defects or irregularities within a crystal structure.

What is cold working?

Shaping metal while it is cold.

What does it mean for a metal to be ductile?

Able to be drawn into a thin wire.

What is elastic deformation?

Temporary shape change that reverses after force is removed.

What is FCC?

Face-centered cubic crystal structure found in some metals.

What is failure?

Conditions under which materials fail under external loads.

What is fatigue?

Weakening of a material due to repeated loads.

What is a grain?

A small crystal that makes up a solid metal.

What is a grain boundary?

Interface between two grains in a polycrystalline material.

What is hardening?

Process to increase the hardness of a metal.

What is heat treating?

Processes to alter the properties of a material.

What does it mean for a substance to be malleable?

Ability to be flattened into thin sheets under pressure.

What is martensite?

A very hard form of steel crystalline structure.

What is metallic bonding?

Electrons are shared by all atoms in solid metal.

What is an ore?

Rock or sediment containing economically important minerals.

What is an oxide?

Chemical compound with at least one oxygen atom.

What is a pinned dislocation?

Dislocation halted by pinning points in the material.

What is plastic deformation?

Material changes shape under sufficient load.

What is quenching?

Rapid cooling of a metal object to harden it.

What is reduction?

Element or compound that donates an electron in a redox reaction.

What is steel?

Alloy of iron and carbon, accounting for 90% of steel production.

What is strength?

Ability to withstand load without failure or plastic deformation.

What is stress?

Internal forces exerted by neighboring particles in a material.

What is strain?

Measure of deformation in a material.

What is toughness?

Ability of a material to absorb energy and deform without fracturing.

What is a unit cell?

Smallest group of particles in a material's repeating pattern.

What is a phase change?

Substance melting or solidifying at a certain temperature.

What is the eutectic point?

Temperature at which each component in a mixture solidifies.

What is the liquidus?

The line on the phase equilibrium diagram above which only liquids are stable and below which some solid is present.

Define liquid.

A nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure.

What is metallic bonding?

Metallic solids are held together by a high density of shared, delocalized electrons.

Explain solidus.

The liquidus and solidus temperatures do not necessarily coincide; if a gap exists between the liquidus and solidus temperatures, then within that gap, the material consists of solid and liquid phases simultaneously (like a slurry).

Define gas.

A material that fills the entire space or volume of its container regardless of the container size.