Titanium
Titanium is a metal and a proud member of the periodic table that haunts most people in their nightmares set in high school chemistry classes. Being an element, Titanium is one of very few substances in the world that is “indivisible”, in the sense that Titanium is an atomic element, something that cannot be broken down further unless it is changed at the atomic level.
Titanium is extremely strong and extremely light. For example, if you had a small solid cube of low carbon steel roughly two inches on each side, it would weigh a bit over two pounds. Steel is also a very strong material, with a yield-strength in the range of fifty-four thousand pounds per square inch. A cube of aluminum the same size would weigh only about three-quarters of a pound, but would not be quite as strong, with a yield-strength near forty thousand pounds per square inch, which is admittedly still a pretty impressive number. The same size block of titanium would weigh just over a pound, coming in between the two others in terms of weight, but amazingly, its yield strength would be in the range of one hundred and forty thousand pounds per square inch! Pound for pound, titanium is an extremely strong material.
Titanium has grown in “public awareness” rapidly in the last few decades, as business and technology have started to design and manufacture using titanium. As one would expect, titanium’s use was originally limited to places like NASA; because of its strength, it is also difficult to process by cutting, shaping, or stretching. However, as these research facilities developed new ways to manipulate the metal, large corporations saw the advantages of this material and started the long process of integrating it as a cost-effective resource. Industries like aerospace transferred knowledge of titanium to other industries driven by a desire to keep weight low and strength high, such as racing bicycles, automotive and motorcycle track competition, sailing, and others. As more industries have started to use the metal, the cost has slowly fallen, and now titanium is even used for things like flatware and laptop computer cases, and it won’t be long before titanium is as common as the iron, aluminum, steel, brass, and copper that we see everywhere we turn today.