This lab simplifies the real-life properties of a selection of materials, in order to illustrate key concepts. Different materials have vastly different properties. Click on a material at left to find out more about it, and put it to the test. You squeezed this block easily, but it took a lot of effort to make it break.
Wood is cheap and pretty strong in compression.
It wasn't easy to break this block of wood because wood is strong when you pull it in the direction of its fibers. It would have been three times easier for you to break this block if you'd stretched it from the top and bottom, across the direction of its fibers. Compared to steel, you squeezed this plastic block easily, but it took a lot of effort to make it break. The long chains of molecules that make up plastic can be pulled and pushed in many directions without failing. You stretched this plastic pretty far before it finally broke.