At first glance, nothing, right?
You would never think that a loaf of bread has something in common with steel. It is obvious that if you want a loaf of bread, you will go to the bakery or the supermarket.
You couldn’t do the same if you want to buy steel.
What these two things have in common has nothing to do with the place you can buy them. .
It isn’t their look, either, of course.
Then, what can it be?
Well…
What if we tell you that a kilo of steel costs as much as a loaf of bread?
Yes, that’s it.
As surprising as it seems to be, the average cost of a kilogram of steel is basically the same as a loaf of bread and such a cheap material is often used in construction.
However, don’t get it wrong, just because it is cheap, it doesn’t mean it is bad quality, in fact, this material has a great resistance and can bear a big weight.
Do you know how much weight steel can bear?
You will be surprised when we tell you.
You have to take into account that steel is used for many purposes. And it wasn’t going to be less important in construction.
Bear in mind that to build buildings, the materials that we use must have certain characteristics depending on the phase of the process and steel is a material with elasticity, extension capacity and malleable, but it has great hardness and resistance.
To understand the huge resistance that it has, 2 millimetres of steel thread can lift a ton.
Does this mean that it is a heavy material?
Not really. In fact,…
How much do you think it would weigh the Eiffel Tower now?
A lot less because, if the Eiffel Tower was built again with the current steel, it would be three or four times lighter. .
Average density of steel is 7,850kg/ m³, it could seem dense but, if we compare it with other materials such as iron or concrete, it is much lighter. What is more, the Millau viaduct, which has been the longest bridge in the world since 2005, i s made of 36 tons of steel.. If it had been made of concrete, it would have weighed 120,000 tons.
When we talked about resistance, we weren’t just talking about the capacity of bearing weight. Since steel is used in nuclear power plants, it is prepared to resist approximately 300 degrees and 200 atmospheres of pressure during 40 years. .
As you see, steel is a material with numerous benefits.
What do you think about these curious characteristics about steel?
