Engineering and fabrication
What is the difference between iron and steel? How do I tell them apart?
need to identify a metal. It is rusty so I suspect it is either iron or steel. Since they both have similar densities and are magnetic, how do I tell the difference betweeen steel and iron?
Public Comments
- steel is composed of carbon
iron is not
sound travels fastest through steel...
hope those help
- method 1: melting point test. iron melts at 1510C and steel will melt around 1370C.
method 2: density test. assume a density of 7.85gm per cm^3 for steel and a density of 7.0 gm per cm^3 for iron.
i would submerse the sample and measure its displacement and compare that with its weight.
method 3: hardness test. im not providing specifics here since the other 2 would be easier and provide your answer. essentially youd investigate the expected hardness of each product and perform a hardness test on them. you could possibly combine all three tests to make a conclusive finding.
