Current Events > How heavy is tungsten compared to grade A steel?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lets say about an once?

I've been trying to look it up but all I find is stuff about heavy metals and heavy metal toxicity.
---

grade A steel has a density somewhere around 7.8 g/cc, while tungsten's is about 19.3

so about 2.5 times heavier

---

So I guess making weapons out of tungsten (like a sword) is out of the question?
---

You'd need to be the hulk to use it.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

So I guess making weapons out of tungsten (like a sword) is out of the question?

You could go for tungsten carbide?

---

I knew there was some kind of tungsten alloy but I figured it would still be too heavy to make a sword or even a gun with.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

I knew there was some kind of tungsten alloy but I figured it would still be too heavy to make a sword or even a gun with.

Tungsten carbide is half carbon. Its light and extremely scratch resistant.

---

As far as weaponry goes, the only real practical use for tungsten itself is in bullets, which it's admittedly pretty good at, but for some reason I don't think that that's what you're interested in.

Also, to touch in on the tungsten carbide thing, it's about 15 g/cc, so I wouldn't call it "light" (still twice as heavy as the steel) but "lighter" is an apt description.

---

Bullets are nice too but considering the density it would be the armor piercing kind in which case there's already depleted uranium though I'm not sure how much denser depleted uranium is compared to tungsten.
---

DU is slightly less compact, at 19.1 g/cc, but the main reasons to use tungsten over it are that tungsten's not radioactive, it's not going to catch fire, and it's a bit less toxic.
But yeah, most of the applications where tungsten really excels just aren't with weapons.

---

7.4 grades

---

Depleted uranium isn't that toxic. If I wanted a dirty bullet I'd just use polonium. Also I assume using tungsten for armor plating isn't that practical either? So what are the applications for tungsten?

I'm doing a bit of a writing project and focused on tungsten since it's the hardest substance on the planet. I just wanted to have my bases covered so it doesn't seem so unrealistic.
---

it's just too bad osmium is so damn expensive.

Banana_Cyanide posted...

Depleted uranium isn't that toxic

not compared to undepleted uranium but it's definitely not something that I'd want to eat a bar of. polonium is worse, of course, but polonium is worse than damn near everything

So what are the applications for tungsten?

incandescent fillings, tungsten arc welding, X-ray tubes, weights, jewelry (painted gold)
far and away its most important uses are in high-temperature situations because of its strength and stupidly high melting point

tungsten since it's the hardest substance on the planet

diamond

---

Where you nerds learn this

Mr Hangman posted...

Osmium is also toxic

Osmium itself isn't toxic but when exposed to air, especially if powdered, it develops into the tetroxide, which is unpleasant stuff. But the element itself is extremely brittle, limiting its usefulness
Iridium's toxicity is up for debate (nobody's really looked into it, as far as I'm aware) but it's also extremely brittle

---

Great_Reapette posted...

not compared to undepleted uranium but it's definitely not something that I'd want to eat a bar of.

DU isn't even very radioactive, but it's a toxic heavy metal on its own.

Polonium is actually fairly harmless to handle, so long as you don't get it inside you somehow, nor look at it too closely.

An ounce of steel weighs the same as an ounce of tungsten

Questionmarktarius posted...

DU isn't even very radioactive

Sometimes, "not even very radioactive" is still a bit too radioactive.

And as for the polonium thing, you're technically right, but that's still a pretty big risk to be taking, since even a bit of dust could very well put you six feet under, and if you have more than a bit of dust it's probably a bit hot to be handling given the radioactivity.

---

Great_Reapette posted...

diamond

Tungsten is the only substance harder than diamond.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

Tungsten is the only substance harder than diamond.

Who the hell told you that? Pure tungsten is a 7.5 on the Mohs scale, and even tungsten carbide's only a 9. Diamond's a 10.

---

If you even have polonium dust, you're probably doing it on purpose, or you're sweeping out an old basement.

yeah that's plenty fair a point, I suppose. you've probably gone into that situation completely aware of what you're doing if you end up there

---

I probably have a few atoms of polonium in my chunk of uranium ore

Tungsten's applications are mostly in tooling.
---

Great_Reapette posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

DU isn't even very radioactive

Sometimes, "not even very radioactive" is still a bit too radioactive.

And as for the polonium thing, you're technically right, but that's still a pretty big risk to be taking, since even a bit of dust could very well put you six feet under, and if you have more than a bit of dust it's probably a bit hot to be handling given the radioactivity.

That's why it's a good choice for when you really want someone dead. Depleted uranium isn't very good for that unless you're a really good shot (though at that point a regular bullet is preferable) due to the bullet most likely passing right through such a soft target and the exposure in that scenario isn't enough. Polonium on the other hand even if it passes right through the target it's still guaranteed to kill eventually.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

That's why it's a good choice for when you really want someone dead.

If that's what you want, thallium is vastly more effective, without having to deal with radiation.

Lead is a lot cheaper and can make someone quite dead if you hit them with it at sufficient velocity

Questionmarktarius posted...

Banana_Cyanide posted...

That's why it's a good choice for when you really want someone dead.

If that's what you want, thallium is vastly more effective.

I never heard of this. please tell me more.

Great_Reapette posted...

Banana_Cyanide posted...

Tungsten is the only substance harder than diamond.

Who the hell told you that? Pure tungsten is a 7.5 on the Mohs scale, and even tungsten carbide's only a 9. Diamond's a 10.

A site called Apollo Minerals. It was one of the first results when I looked up just how tough tungsten was.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

I never heard of this. please tell me more.

Okay, now I'm a little concerned.

Banana_Cyanide posted...

A site called Apollo Minerals. It was one of the first results when I looked up just how tough tungsten was.

well, that remark is absurdly wrong.
even as far as elements go, and ignoring carbon because of the allotrope thing, both chromium and boron are harder than tungsten is

---

Questionmarktarius posted...

Banana_Cyanide posted...

I never heard of this. please tell me more.

Okay, now I'm a little concerned.

Ayyyyyyy lmao....

No need to worry. If you look back a couple of posts I mentioned that I'm researching this stuff for a writing thing I'm doing and wanted to be on point.
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

No need to worry. If you look back a couple of posts I mentioned that I'm researching this stuff for a writing thing I'm doing and wanted to be on point.

Pretty much everything surrounding that one mostly-harmless radioactive heavy metal will make you dead.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/elements/features/2010/blogging_the_periodic_table/bismuth_a_gentleman_among_scoundrels.html

Something just occurred to me. Is thallium even suitable to be made into a bullet?
---

Banana_Cyanide posted...

Something just occurred to me. Is thallium even suitable to be made into a bullet?

Seems a bit soft and reactive, kinda like lithium but much heavier.

In that case polonium seems like the better option.
---

I'm not sure if you could afford enough polonium to make a bullet out of it

Complete_Idi0t posted...

I'm not sure if you could afford enough polonium to make a bullet out of it

Probably that, but it's also a post-transition metal. Those are typically brittle with a low melting point.
Best I can find is that its physical properties are somewhat similar to bismuth, which makes for terrible bullets (but pretty decent shotgun pellets)

Huh. If you want to violently get a very active alpha-emitter into someone, a shotgun may be a good idea.
I wonder if americium would work just as well. It also emits almost entirely alpha radiation at a fairly absurd rate, and it can be easily extracted from smoke alarms.