Brittleness
A material property indicating a substance's tendency to break (fracture) suddenly with little or no plastic deformation. Brittle materials have minimal plastic region on stress-strain graphs and fail catastrophically. Glass, ceramics, and cast iron are brittle.
Real World
The 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster involved brittle failure: a fragment of foam struck the leading-edge carbon-reinforced panels, which fractured suddenly with no plastic deformation to absorb the impact energy.
Exam Focus
When comparing brittle and ductile materials, always reference the absence of a plastic region on the stress-strain graph — not just that the material 'snaps'.
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