Thank you for uploading this document The earliest humans had access to only a very limited number

of materials, those that occur naturally: stone, wood, clay, skins, and so on. With time they disco vered techniques for producing materials that had properties superior to those o f the nat- ural ones; these new materials included pottery and various metals. F urthermore, it was discovered that the properties of a material could be altered by heat treat- ments and by the addition of other substances. At this point, ma terials utilization was totally a selection process that involved choosing from a given, rather limited set of materials the one best suited for an application by virtue of its characteris- tics. It was not until relatively recent times tha t scientists came to understand the relationships between the structural element s of materials and their properties. This knowledge, acquired over approximately the past 100 years, has empowered them to fashion, to a large degree, the chara cteristics of materials. Thus, tens of thousands of different materials have evo lved with rather specialized characteristics that meet the needs of our modern a nd complex society; these include metals, plastics, glasses, and fibers. The development of many technologies that make our existence so comfort- able ha s been intimately associated with the accessibility of suitable materials. An ad vancement in the understanding of a material type is often the forerunner to the stepwise progression of a technology. For example, automobiles would not have b een possible without the availability of inexpensive steel or some other compara ble sub- stitute. In our contemporary era, sophisticated electronic devices rely on components that are made from what are called semiconducting materials. 1 The approximate dates for the beginnings of Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages were 2.5 million bc, 3500 bc and 1000 bc, respectively. ? 1.2 Materials Science and Engineering 3 1.2 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Sometimes it is useful to subdivide the discipline of materials science and engi neer- ing into materials science and materials engineering subdisciplines. Stric tly speaking, materials science involves investigating the relationships that exis t between the structures and properties of materials. In contrast, materials engi neering is, on the basis of these structure property correlations, designing or eng ineering the structure of a material to produce a predetermined set of propertie s.2 From a functional per- spective, the role of a materials scientist is to dev elop or synthesize new materials, whereas a materials engineer is called upon to create new products or systems using existing materials, and/or to develop tech niques for processing materials. Most grad- uates in materials programs are trai ned to be both materials scientists and materials engineers. Structure is at this point a nebulous term that deserves some explanation. In brie f, the structure of a material usually relates to the arrangement of its interna l components. Subatomic structure involves electrons within the individual atoms and interactions with their nuclei. On an atomic level, structure encompasses t he or- ganization of atoms or molecules relative to one another. The next larger structural realm, which contains large groups of atoms that are normally agglom erated together, is termed microscopic, meaning that which is subject to direct ob servation using some type of microscope. Finally, structural elements that may b e viewed with the naked eye are termed macroscopic. The notion of property deserves elaboration. While in service use, all materials a re exposed to external stimuli that evoke some type of response. For example, a specimen subjected to forces will experience deformation, or a polished metal su rface will reflect light. A property is a material trait in terms of the kind an d magnitude of response to a specific imposed stimulus. Generally, definitions o f properties are made independent of material shape and size. Virtually all important properties of solid materials may be grouped into six di fferent categories: mechanical, electrical, thermal, magnetic, optical, and dete ri- orative. For each there is a characteristic type of stimulus capable of prov oking different responses. Mechanical properties relate deformation to an applie d load or force; examples include elastic modulus and strength. For electrical p roperties, such as electrical conductivity and dielectric constant, the stimulus is an electric field. The thermal behavior of solids can be represented in term

s of heat capacity and ther- mal conductivity. Magnetic properties demonstrate t he response of a material to the application of a magnetic field. For optical pr operties, the stimulus is electromag- netic or light radiation; index of refract ion and reflectivity are representative optical properties. Finally, deteriorati ve characteristics relate to the chemical reactivity of materials. The chapters that follow discuss properties that fall within each of these six classification s.