What the Most Fragile Thing in the World Is

At first glance, it seems that anything that is easy to break or destroy is fragile in the literal and figurative sense. At the same time, these things can often show incredible strength and durability. How so?

5-Minute Crafts will help you figure out what the trick is here, and also tell you which things can be called the most fragile on Earth.

What fragility is

We call things fragile if they are easy to spoil, break, or damage. Usually, it is something delicate, thin, or made of a very soft or brittle material. For example, a snowflake, butterfly wing, and a soap bubble are often called fragile.

On the other hand, brittleness is a physical property. It is generally applied to materials that fail when there is little or no plastic deformation before failure. One way to prove this is to match the broken halves, which should fit exactly since no plastic deformation has occurred. The property opposite of fragility is plasticity.

One of the most brittle materials is glass. But bricks are also considered brittle. Despite this, a brick can withstand compression well, and also has other important features: it is fireproof, it doesn’t require additional processing to resist moisture, it absorbs noise, and it doesn’t conduct heat. Therefore, people build strong and durable houses using brick.

In addition to glass and brick, high carbon tool steel is also a brittle material.

Which material is the most fragile

It’s hard to say which material is the most fragile since fragility is defined by 2 things:

• loading velocity: a material becomes more brittle under fast loading
• temperature: the lower it is, the higher the brittleness of a material becomes

Example: Mild steel is a ductile material but brittle when subjected to shock loading.

At the same time, quenching can increase the durability of the material, while reducing its plastic properties.

What thing can be called the most fragile in the world

Things can also be fragile in a figurative sense. For example, it could be the human ego: anything can cause significant damage to personal self-consciousness, a system of values, and identity.

Another example: It takes a lot of time and effort to gain someone’s trust or to achieve happiness, at the same time they can be lost at any moment, therefore these things are also considered fragile. For some people, peace in a relationship can be fragile, for others, a feeling of joy or love is fragile.

In a figurative sense, perhaps the most fragile thing on Earth is life, because it could end at any moment.