54 Brittle Bones

Brittle materials have a small plastic region and they begin to fail toward fracture or rupture almost immediately after being stressed beyond their elastic limit. Bone, cast iron, ceramic, and concrete are examples of brittle materials. Materials that have relatively large plastic regions under tensile stress are known as ductile. Examples of ductile materials include aluminum and copper. The following figure shows how brittle and ductile materials change shape under stress. Even the cartilage that makes up tendons and ligaments is relatively brittle because it  behaves less like example (c) and more like examples (a) and (b). Luckily, those tissues have adapted to allow the deformation required for mobility by, which is the purpose of the toe region of their stress vs. strain curves.

Materials that are very malleable can undergo significant plastic deformation under compressive stress, as apposed to tensile stress. Very malleable materials can be pounded into thin sheets. Gold is the most malleable metal.^[1]