There are substances harder than diamonds, take borazon for example it is much harder than a diamond and is made up of a compound of alternating boron and nitrogen atoms. diamonds are made in the same structure but is not has hard as borazon, so why do we humans stick to such idealogies? look deeper into this and answer the moral of this question, why when somebody is told something and it is beleived for a long time, are they ignorant to the truth? it has happened throughout history.
2006-08-14 21:19:59 · 19 answers · asked by PAulio -- 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
perhaps they have not heard of this substance. i have not. perhaps it is due to borazon being an artificial substance and not a natural one. ive taken the liberty of looking it up, and every page i have looked at so far either states that borazon is not harder than diamond, or that it is harder, but diamond can still scratch it. check these links
2006-08-14 21:33:06 · answer #1 · answered by Stand-up Philosopher 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Up until the mid-late 20th century diamond was the hardest substance known to man. And it is still the hardest substance most people are likely to come across in their everyday lives. The Moh Scale of hardness ranged from 0-10, with 10 being the hardness of diamond. With the discovery of new processes and the production of new materials this scale has had to be extended.
Why do people still believe something that is false? Partly because people are still taught that diamonds are the hardest material - in primary school if you are talking to children about hardness it avoids confusion if you start talking about borazon or fullerites which the children will never have heard of. And that fact sticks in the mind.
The deeper moral? Well yes, if people are believing something that is false they should probably be told the truth. But in this case it is a minor misconception, and one that is close enough to the truth for everyday use. When children are taught the laughably (to trained scientists) incorrect concept of atoms 'sharing electrons' and electrons 'orbiting the nucleus' do we complain? No, because it is a useful lie... if necessary they can learn the truth later on, but there is no point in jumping in at the deep end and talking about the uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics from day one.
2006-08-14 21:47:38 · answer #2 · answered by robcraine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think this is one for the human behaviour scientists and not for the chemists, but I suspect that the answer lies in the rapid turn-over of knowledge today in comparison to only a few years ago. The other side of that is our apparent inability to assimilate and distribute newer information in a faster and more efficient manner.
Since the days in which usable hardness scales were first devised, the diamond was regarded as the hardest known substance. Then, the scientists started playing around with the the geometries of other hard substances and created one or more with a hardness greater than the diamond. But the diamond had been the "hardness champ" for so long that it was virtually a cultural icon or something.
Add to that, the advent of harder substance than a diamond wasn't terribly "earth-shattering" to most of the world. In the scientific communities it WAS remarkable, but this discovery hardly had the same effect on the world as, say, penicillin, streptomycin, teflon, kevlar, the integrated circuit, or a host of other noteworthy developments.
For MY money, it was because the diamond was the "hardness king" for so long, and that its usurpation in the category was/is little-known. Add to that, the new discovery wasn't immediately applicable to certain maladies of mankind as were penicillin(syphilis, gonorrhea, pneumonia), streptomycin (tuberculosis & penicillin-resistant respiratory bugs), teflon (dry lubricity) kevlar(helmets, tires, flack vests) and the integrated circuit (can anyone spell NASA ?).
We're also discovering things a lot more rapidly than we iused to. When I was in high school, it was estimated that the sum of the world's knowledge was doubling about every 10 years. When I finished college, it was supposed to be doubling every FIVE years. Now, I hear it's doubling every TWO years, perhaps even faster. But the ability of our cultures and their communication systems to assimilate, organize and distribute this information is lagging behind badly. The diamond vs. borazon question is probably a symptom of something else in the world that could stand some serious improvement.
2006-08-15 00:47:49 · answer #3 · answered by Kosh Naranek 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are reading far more into this incident than necessary.
How many applications have been found for borazon?
How readily available is it?
How economic is it?
If you really want to do analysis, look at language. "Diamond is the hardest substance known to man" is true, if you mean the hardest substance that is reasonably available.
Is it so wrong to use that level of precision w/ language? In a few instances it is wrong, but often it is not.
Much strife could be eliminated if people weren't unnecessarily nit-picky.
2006-08-15 02:30:17 · answer #4 · answered by Iridium190 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's like zero gravity. It doesn't really exist (just free fall) yet we believe in it.
With diamond also you have the fact that is a common non-exotic material.
Stuff like borazon, fullerene etc is by and large unknown to man.
We humans also like to stick to our values and find it very hard to change them even when we know that they are wrong!
For example we kept calling the native americans "indians" for hundreds of years even tough we bloody well knew that they weren't.
2006-08-15 00:15:19 · answer #5 · answered by 4getme 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well you cannot judge between the two cuz diamond is made up of only carbon while the other is a chemical compound of two elements.
We are sticking to the idealogy that diamond made up of carbon is the hardest element
2006-08-14 21:23:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Boron nitride is not necessarily harder than diamond, only the naturally-occuring ones laced with tiny flaws, and even then, only one type of boron nitride is like that..
As for misconceptions, well, this is hardly the only one. The earth was flat for a while, I believe.....
Most importantly, though, what girl wants to receive a hunk of black crap when a guy asks to marry her?
2006-08-14 21:53:16 · answer #7 · answered by Knows what he is talking about 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because diamond is precious and nobody knows anything about borazon
2006-08-14 21:36:17 · answer #8 · answered by Clinkit 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Billboard top 100
2016-03-27 02:21:05 · answer #9 · answered by Barbara 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So "Borazon is women's best friend." Can we now talk about the price of this my dear.
2006-08-14 21:28:31 · answer #10 · answered by smilingface 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋