Is Spider Silk Stronger Than Steel?

Is Spider Silk Stronger Than Steel?

#shorts

[stevenjohnson]

So a person could swing between buildings with a spider web. Good to know

[Aaron-kjdv]

I bet the spider was watching like "WTF is this bozo doing?"

[MrGreen]

Legend has it, that spider is still stuck in Narnia after his escape route was destroyed

[cameronlane]

I remember they did a kid part of Mythbusters that they made a rope with as many threads of spider silk (there are farms for harvesting spider silk) as the steel one was made out of, to the thickness of each wire so it was a completely accurate comparison. They came up with basically the same results. Spider silk is stronger than steel of the same size and thickness.

[AverageBloonarius]

The spider is probaly like ohh 12 caterpillars, but my web is broken😢

[diswazzi]

Make sure to explain the difference between strengths because, just saying that spider silk is stronger than steel is misleading. Spider silk has a greater tensile strength than steel, but it's weaker in other areas. There's also tension strength, yield strength, impact strength, and hardness, to name a few

[ZSakari]

In Malaysia they have spiders that stretch their webs across power lines to catch birds. I found one of their webs at ground level in the rain forest and it felt like a cable.

[TheShaddy]

"Lets check out this spider silk."
Me: "what spider silk i barely see anything, this could be magic for all we know."

[Reddw]

I remember once I threw a large stick at a cobweb to try and break it but instead the stick got stuck to it and me and my friend started freaking out.

[terminatedaccount]

Now the spider will test how strong are the walls of a humans house compared to a piece of branch.

[ezequielmayorga]

Shout out to the spider who built this web for the video

[themonsterbaby]

The starving spider is just watching you destroy his web like "wtf

[mariano]

Imagine crossing a bridge made of spider silk

[dominikwojcik]

Ur string *breaks after six bricks put on it*
Turboflex*breaks after 12 air particles*

[TBMdylxxhch]

The plant holding the web: you're nothing without me

[mr_sam]

Spiderman- My years of hardwork getting revealed*

[theoriginalmonstermaker]

AMAZING! I would have NEVER guessed it could hold that many!

It didn't even appear to 'snap' at the end... more like 'detach' from its anchor point.

Also, I typically hate pedantry, but as you are an educational resource, it would also be beneficial to audience for you to point out the fallacy of spider silk being 'stronger' than steel; in measuring a materials 'strength', there are a variety of qualities (relating to resistance to different types of pressure, impact or tension) that determine specific types of 'strength', so the comparison requires situational definition.
[I THINK what I've heard is the popular misconception comes from the tensile strength to weight ratio, but I may be mistaken]
ALSO, there are MANY kinds of spider silk ( both across the different species of spiders, and even within the abilities of an individual spider for different purposes)

PS: I know you said your test was a measure btwn proportional cross sections, so still super interesting! Wasnt tryn to hate!
... however I wonder how you could measure the thickness of smthn so thin? Those would be quite the impressive calipers!

Ok, novel complete : )

[fishrealm]

The spider just trying to catch some flies:

[bpexodus]

SPIDER: "HEY! Stop putting stuff on my line!"

[maniac]

It would be nice if we knew more specifics about this experiment, like how you determined what weighs to use, the specs of the materials, and what was holding up the steel wire. Additionally, it would’ve been great to see the aftermath of the steel.