What is it about diamonds that makes them so much harder than

they are transparent and white and also they are made of geometric 2D shapes that make up a 3D shape (think of a polished diamond for example) thats why non polished diamonds like glass break up so easily.

>>8647856
its because diamonds can scratch metal but metal cant scratch diamonds

Because pressure

Covalent bonds duh. Idiots

diamonds are naturally imbued with viagra

Every carbon is bonded to 4 other carbons

>>8647968
>he believes the carbon meme

>>8647856
>carbon
>metal

To answer your question op, each carbon atom is bonded tetrahedrally to another which creates a stable 3d structure. The bonds are purely covalent (no ionic character) with equal sharing of electrons which makes them extremely difficult to break.

>>8648453
lol newfag

>>8648514
This. It's actually a crystal, made up of neatly ordered atoms in a repeating pattern. This makes it incredibly dense and stable compared to many other types of matter, which makes it more resilient or "harder".

File: pg44-boredom-getty.jpg (1MB, 2096x1536px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2096x1536px

>>8647856

>>8647856
Due to extensive research done by the University of Pittsburgh, diamond has been confirmed as the hardest metal known to man. The research is as follows:

Pocket-protected scientists built a wall made of iron and crashed a diamond car into it at 400 miles per hour, and the car was unharmed. They then built a wall out of diamond and crashed a car made of iron moving at 400 miles an hour into the wall, and the wall came out fine. They then crashed a diamond car made of 400 miles per hour into a wall, and there were no survivors. They crashed 400 miles per hour into a diamond travelling at iron car. Western New York was powerless for hours. They rammed a wall made of metal into 400 miles an hour made of diamond, and the resulting explosion shifted earths orbit 400 million miles away from the sun, saving the earth from a meteor the size of a small Washington suburb that was hurtling towards mid-western Prussia at 400 billion miles an hour. They shot a diamond made of iron at a car moving at 400 walls per hour, and as a result caused over 10000 wayward planes to lose track of their bearings, and make a fatal crash with over 10000 buildings in downtown New York. They spun 400 miles at diamond into iron per wall. The results were inconclusive. Finally, they placed 400 diamonds per hour in front of a car made of wall travelling at miles per iron, and the result proved with out a doubt that diamonds were the hardest metal of all time, if not just the hardest metal known to man.

>>8648551
Is there any material that's dense but unstable? I want to get a fitting present for my mom.

>>8648675
Womenomium

>>8648690
I like this post

>>8648675
anyone who browses 4chan is pretty dense and unstable. I'd say you good to go

>>8648731
Nice

>>8647856
Carbon being heated and condensed into a ball of infinity.