Mistake Master
Mistake Master · AP Chemistry · Unit 2 · Step-Through Animation
The Same Blow: One Solid Shatters, One Just Dents
You'll learnwhy metals bend where ionic solids shatter, and what an alloy really is.
Swing a hammer at a salt crystal and it splits; swing the same hammer at a copper bar and it flattens. Copper is the one held harder of the two, so the difference cannot be strength. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.
cations in a shared sea · strong, and with no direction
Before you start
What you're looking at
Two solids side by side — a salt lattice and a copper bar — each about to be struck by the same hammer.
The question
Both bonds are strong, so why does the salt shatter while the copper only dents?
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