/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #11531936

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Limits of sharpness?

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 12:02:48 2020 No.11531936 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>11532029 >>11532036 >>11532039 >>11532170 >>11532741 >>11532804 >>11533229

How sharp can a thing possibly be? Assuming you have a material with the perfect properties and the perfect technology to work with that material, could you make something so sharp that it cuts through steel like butter or does that only work in cartoons?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 13:24:50 No.11532029 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936
Well some atomic force microscopy tips are on the scale of nanometres, but you couldn't really make a blade that sharp because it wouldn't be strong enough in that area to survive more than a single hit, there's probably some maximum sharpness that can survive a hit of a given force.
By 'perfect' properties you probably mean that you can make it arbitrarily strong and hard, in which case yeah you could probably cut through steel

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 13:32:39 No.11532036 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936
Graphene sword

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 13:36:28 No.11532039 Report

Quoted By: >>11532227

>>11531936

I have heard somewhere that the blades (macuahuitl) of the Aztecs made from obsidian were the sharpest weapon for their time.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 14:45:59 No.11532170 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936
I've heard that a thousand fold katana can even cut a neutron star. Is this true /sci/?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 15:06:44 No.11532227 Report

Quoted By:

>>11532039
Still the sharpest weapon, though too brittle for actual combat. The 3 nanometer edge is sharper than any steel. Some doctors use obsidian scalpels for surgery. Not just a sharper edge, but also a smoother, less jagged edge.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 18:52:40 No.11532741 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936
>How sharp can a thing possibly be?
Monomolecular?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 19:10:54 No.11532804 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936

A single row of atoms at the edge of the blade is the sharpest you can go in theory. Surgical scalpel blades made of obsidian get pretty close to that.

A sharp blade won’t be very helpful for cutting through tough materials like metal though. The hardness of your cutting edge and how much pressure you’re applying is more important.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 04 Apr 2020 21:32:43 No.11533229 Report

Quoted By:

>>11531936
It depends

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