What are interesting/cool topics about material deformation?

[ENGBIO]

Hey guys, so I have to give a 10 minute presentation for my class. I am absolutely terrible at memorizing stuff. Its pretty bad. If I can find an interesting or cool topic I would be able to remember material better.
It needs to be about deformation or fracture of a material in terms of micro structure.

Are there any topics you guys know about the would be interesting to a lay person?

 

[jedishrfu]

How about spaghetti breaking?

 

[jedishrfu]

More on spaghetti breaking where applying a twist can allow the spaghetti to break in two pieces instead of three or more:

 

[berkeman]

It needs to be about deformation or fracture of a material in terms of micro structure.

Have you learned about Nitinol yet ("shape memory alloy")? Very interesting material, with some unique applications...

https://www.memry.com/intro-to-nitinol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_titanium

 

[FEAnalyst]

What about auxetics ? They deform in opposite manner than regular materials - when subjected to tension they become thicker and when subjected to compression they become thinner.

 

[jedishrfu]

Veritaseum had this video on shape changing micro robots:



and this one on bending machines: