Maybe it’s because I’m kind of weird and nerdy, but today I was thinking about alloys. I couldn’t quite remember what metals were used to make brass. I was initially thinking it was copper and tin, but I was pretty sure that was bronze (speaking of which is bronze even used anymore? Like, for anything?). So I Wikipedia’d it. And yeah, Wikipedia is now a verb, just like Google. Turns out it’s copper and zinc – who knew.
And because I was then more curious about alloys in general, I found this list of alloys on Wikipedia. Now, there are tons of alloys out there, mainly ones I’ve never heard of, but there are quite a few common ones that I’m going to list as my own personal reference for when I think about alloys again. And yes, I’m pretty sure that actually will happen at some point.
Brass – Copper, Zinc
Bronze – Copper, Tin, aluminum or another element
White Gold – Gold, Nickel, Palladium (I always wondered what white gold was)
Stainless Steel – Iron, Carbon, Chromium, Nickel
Tool Steel – Iron, Carbon, Tungsten or Manganese
Solder – Lead, Tin (I also always wondered what this actually was made of. If I had to guess, it would have been these two metals)
Sterling Silver – Silver, Copper
Pewter – Tin, Lead, Copper (never knew what this was really)