Is anything truly indestructible/unbreakable?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I surveyed all known materials and classes of materials from what I could find, from maraging steel and H1 and Lc200n, to diamonds, fullerenes, and everything in between and I found that no matter what it is, given enough time and force, all of these and more can be broken, corroded, or somehow damaged.

However, here is what I discovered: (I am leaving spirit and soul out of this discussion because those are "beyond the natural" realm): Energy cannot be destroyed once it comes into existence, it can only change form. And so in a sense, energy is indestructible.

Has anyone ever broken gravity or magnetism? Not that I know of. Enlighten me if you know of that happening.

This means that if you could somehow make objects from "solid energy" directly, instead of having to assemble them in hiearchies (like protons and electrons into atoms and atoms into molecules, all which can break down, except electrons, because they appear to be fundamental units, so far), you would have a truly indestructible thing. If you could somehow take pure gravity (though some believe gravity is an effect, not a thing) or pure magnetism, and bond it into a material form, you would not be able to destroy it, no matter how much force or kinetics you threw at it.

You can say that the energy still has to be generated, or the magnetic field has to be generated, and that generator system could break down.

What do you say?

If you could make stable neutronium it would be invulnerable to anything of lesser strength and density.

[MichaelScott]

Since the sun will go supernova in the future, I’d say no.

[Evil D]

Well, matter is indestructible. That's probably about it.

[OldHoosier62]

After many, many years in the Marine Corps I truly believe that NOTHING is indestructible. If an object can be broken then a junior Marine will find a way.... And I've seen lots of broken gear. Lol.

[Water Bug]

One of my high school chemistry teacher's favorite quotes was that matter cannot be created nor destroyed except in a nuclear reaction... although there is no "creation" or "destruction" of matter in such an event, such an event can rearrange matter.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I would like to see someone take an electrical charge from a bolt of lightning and break it apart. No can do. Now if we could make "solidified electricity" it would be unbreakable.

[Extra330SC]

Since the sun will go supernova in the future, I’d say no.

Actually. ..our sun is on the smaller side of stars to go supernova! Over a long period of time the sun will expand into a Red Giant and slowly absorb Venus, Mercury, and the Earth! Then our sun will slowly recede and collapse into a White Dwarf ! Lots of things going on during this process. ..but mostly proven by observation and physics!

I think the Earth would probably prefer the supernova to being slowly baked alive and then absorbed :cool:

James

[knivesandbooks]

Play dough, perhaps.

[anagarika]

All is energy. All is indestructible.

[tvenuto]

All is semantics. All is debatable.

[demoncase]

What do you say?

If you could make stable neutronium it would be invulnerable to anything of lesser strength and density.

If you can't break it in any way then you can't form it.
If you can't form it then you can't use it industrially.

You have made the world's most indestructable paperweight material.....Until you consider this:

If no energy can act on the material- or it can absorb all and any form of energy to an infinite amount without change- then that material would simply cease to exist in this material plane of the universe.

Entropy increases because energy can be transferred

This material would be a place where entropy ceased- and time would therefore cease for that material, as a component of the time-space skein of the universe. It would stop as the rest of the universe went on.

If you follow the logic further- this material would become a place where energy flows out of our universe.....that kinda feels like we just accidentally made a black hole :eek:
When I think about the concept of this ultimate strength material, I picture something very dense.
If it's infinitely strong- then it's infinitely dense
And that's black hole territory.

[tvenuto]

I would actually argue that this object is kind of the opposite of a black hole. My reasoning is a black hole has been defined as a region of space with maximum entropy. An object that does not allow any reorganization I would think could be called a region of space with minimum entropy. But as I said were just getting into the realm of semantics.

[demoncase]

I would actually argue that this object is kind of the opposite of a black hole. My reasoning is a black hole has been defined as a region of space with maximum entropy. An object that does not allow any reorganization I would think could be called a region of space with minimum entropy. But as I said were just getting into the realm of semantics.

Yep, its beyond me.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

demoncase you my friend are genius. Thank you for that amazing reply, and I think tvenuto and you came upon this idea. Excellent.

Now let me ask you this: In my original question, would you say that technically an electron is stronger than all weaker materials and things, being it is energy in some form, and if we could somehow make "solidified electricity" it would be stronger and harder than diamond and the best steel alloys, and would never rust?

[demoncase]

demoncase you my friend are genius. Thank you for that amazing reply, and I think tvenuto and you came upon this idea. Excellent.

Now let me ask you this: In my original question, would you say that technically an electron is stronger than all weaker materials and things, being it is energy in some form, and if we could somehow make "solidified electricity" it would be stronger and harder than diamond and the best steel alloys, and would never rust?

When you are working in the sub-atomic particle range then concepts like rust (requiring the action of oxygen on iron) are redundant.
Likewise the concept of material strength- which is again something at the atomic-level-and-above.

As I've said before on these type of threads: it's not a case of collecting enough 'sub-atomic stuff' together and you have some amazing supermaterial.
The properties of such a mass material made from one type of sub-atomic particle are unknowable and honestly impossible to guess at.

Thinking in simple Occam's Razor type terms
Enough electrons together makes a lightning bolt.
We see them enough to know how they behave- They live for a fraction of second, move very fast and anything they touch goes bang.
Having some magic pair of gloves that you could catch a lightning bolt with then freeze in space-time to then be able to manipulate it is in the realms of Lord Of The Rings as much as sci-fi

You'd need some type of hyper-accurate, hyper-powerful, field manipulation tech (Think Star Trek forcefield type stuff but orders of magnitude more sophisticated)....When you have that type of tech that can fundamentally re-sculpture the building blocks of the universe, making a knife from some electron condensate would be a curio compared to the power you wield.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Great points above, that helps my understanding greatly.

My next question then is about more "down to earth" materials that are still exotic, but, which we have some good degrees of knowledge about: things such as beta carbon nitride. I read some articles and one of the authors claimed this material in its final form may be "harder and stronger than diamond". You, demoncase, of all people, are very knowledgeable about terms such as strength and hardness and how it relates to real-world materials usage, such as armour and knife blades.

I know some are very skeptical about ceramics for blades and armour , though both vehicle and body armour as well as knives have been made from ceramics and related materials, to various degrees of performance and quality. One of the authors speculated that beta carbon nitride (supposedly slightly different than the carbon nitride used in plasma and chemical spray processes to coat blades and other objects?), when industrially produced, will be "11" on the Mohs Scale of hardness.

Now, hardness is different than tensile or compressive and other forms of strength and toughness, as we see from diamond.

I would appreciate your feedback and insights into such a material.

Interestingly, a nanotechnologist told me that on the macro scale we are familiar with diamond being a material harder than other materials, but,at the molecular level, so he claimed, diamond can have a "rubbery property" when it encounters molecular vibrations.

That was very surprising to hear. He claimed that when it comes to actually constructing functional electro mechanical mechanisms at the molecular scale, gravity is less of a concern as it is at the macroscale, and heat based vibrations become a much greater concern for the stability of machines and materials; and that some may work better at lower temperatures and ultra high vacuum enviroments, and that nature works heavilly in water/liquid phase enviroments, such as ribosomes and proteins, though they can be made to work even in non water based solvents and other enviroments.

[standy99]

Time is Unbreakable and indestructible

[Crux]

I have some weeds in my yard that are pretty close.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Time is Unbreakable and indestructible

How do you know that? And how do we define time?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I have some weeds in my yard that are pretty close.

That kudzu stuff is very hardy. I hear cows love to eat it.