Tin Stick

At first glance, these silvery-grey sticks of tin may appear unremarkable, yet they have the ability to reveal something of the extraordinary internal micro-world of materials and demonstrate how this hidden structure affects how the material behaves. If you take this bar in both hands and sharply bend it, something extraordinary happens; the movement of the microcrystalline structure of the metal produces vibrations that can be felt and heard. The crunchy, crackling sound produced is termed ‘the cry’ of tin. Despite being malleable and ductile, it feels like it is shattering or splintering like a stick of wood or glass, a sensation directly attributable to the invisibly small crystalline structure of the metal.