Summary and Terms

In this chapter, you were introduced to the basics of Materials Science as a discipline, specifically what defines a material, how they have been or could be useful to us, and how we might start to go about classifying them.

Materials are indeed the substance of civilization and are so important to the advancement of humanity that we classify era based on the materials humans used to produce their tools. Clearly, if materials are what we use to make our tools, then the understanding of materials is one of the most important steps towards producing new and better devices - from stone to silicon.

You were also introduced to one of the most important concepts in materials science and engineering: the MSE paradigm. The paradigm is an extremely useful model for thinking systematically about material Processing, Structure, Properties, and Performance, how these aspects of material systems influence one another, and how we can manipulate these aspects to produce useful and novel materials. Importantly, the paradigm is linear, with only adjacent aspects being able to influence one another.

MSE as a field is extremely interdisciplinary, with myriad applications in any area that deals with physical objects. Hopefully this chapter has also illustrated that a strong understanding of materials is broadly useful for engineers in general - not just those of us who want to make materials our jobs.

Terms

Material: Materials are solid(ish) substances with some kind of technological relevance to us as humans, realized or potential. Section 1.4.1

Materials Scientist: An MSE practitioner who is primarily interested in the why and how of materials, typically focusing on explaining why materials act the way they do and how we might improve them. Section 1.4.1

Materials Engineer: An MSE practitioner who approaches the field with more specific engineering goals in mind, such as designing materials for specific applications. Section 1.4.1

Processing: How a material is made. This can be as simple as the temperature we cast a steel alloy at, or as complex as the specific type of iron-bearing ore we use and the contaminants it might contain. Section 1.4.1

Structure: The physical arrangement of a material's atoms, including any patterns and deviations from them, as in a mostly random mix of filler and binder in a concrete or the regular arrangements of atoms in a single-crystalline nickel superalloy. Also one of the primary ways of classifying a material. Section 1.4.1 Section 1.7.1

Properties: The way a material behaves quantitatively, as in how hard can one pull on a polymer and how much does it deform before it breaks, or what wavelength of light does this glass reflect or transmit. One of the primary ways of classifying materials. Section 1.4.1 Section 1.7.1

Performance: How a material functions within a given application. Performance can range from mostly quantitative, as in how well a polymer works as a structural component in a car, to objectively qualitative as in how aesthetic a table made of wood might look as opposed to one made of metal. Section 1.4.1

Theory: One way of navigating the materials paradigm involving using mathematical models to explore relationships between paradigm elements. Theory is a traditional foundation of all science, including MSE. Section 1.4.1

Computation: Modeling materials with computer simulations, which can yield insights into existing theories and help develop new ones - frequently faster than one could solely through experimentation. Section 1.4.1

Experimentation: A procedure carried out to arbitrate competing models or hypotheses. In MSE and other engineering fields, experimentation colloquially implies a physical experiment that takes place in a laboratory, as opposed to computation or theory, which are computer-based or foundational equation-based approaches, respectively. Section 1.4.1

Characterization: A way of navigating the materials paradigm that involves observing and measuring aspects of a material. Experimenting and characterizing the results is another cornerstone of science and MSE. Section 1.4.1

Disruptive Technology: A technology that makes other technologies obsolete. The advent of iron displacing bronze as the preferred tool material in developing civilizations or the smartphone displacing clunkier early phones are both great examples of extremely disruptive technologies. Section 1.6.1

Bonding: The way a material's atoms are held together - one of the primary ways of classifying materials. Section 1.7.1

Applications: The things we typically use a material for - an important sub-classification for the primary classes of materials. Section 1.7.1