Materials and their properties

Part I

1. Do you know the following materials? Match the materials to their definitions below:

glass plastic metal

	a type of solid substance that is usually hard and shiny, that conducts heat and electricity.
	hard, transparent substance (material), produced by mixing sand with soda by glass-blowing process; usually used in windows.
	a light strong material that is made with chemicals and is used for making many different kinds of objects.

What can be made of these materials?

Which material is the best for dishes?

2. Which is the best material for the following objects and why?

a folk, a football, a window, a bicycle, a plate

(“Engineering” Workshop by Lindsey White, OUP; Unit 5, pg.6, ex.1)

3. Read the information in the table below and put each heading into the correct column (A, B, or C). What is the order of materials in column “A”?

Uses Properties Material

	A _________	B __________	C __________
	aluminium	light, easy to shape	aircraft, window and door frames, cooking foil
	brass (copper and zinc)	doesn’t rust in contact with air and water, strong	valves, taps
	cement	mixed with water it dries to a hard material	pre-made building blocks, to hold bricks together
	copper	easily made into wire, carries electricity well	electrical wire, tubing
	diamond	hardest natural materials, can cut glass and metal	industrial cutting and grinding
	glass	clear, hard, breaks easily	windows, bottles
	iron	hard	engineering
	mild steel (iron +0.15-0.3% carbon	hard, strong, quite easy to shape	bridges, ships, cars
	optical fibre	carries light and coded messages	lighting, cable TV, telecommunications
	plastic	light, strong, easy to shape	hard hats, computer casing

(“Engineering” Workshop by Lindsey White, OUP; Unit 5, pg.6, ex.2)

4. Read the information in the table from ex.3 again and find out which material (1-10) is best for:

a)	water pipes
b)	a knife for cutting a microscope lens
c)	connecting a socket to the electricity supply
d)	a bicycle frame
e)	television casing

(“Engineering” Workshop by Lindsey White, OUP; Unit 5, pg.6, ex.3)