Talk:Alloy

Semi-protected edit request on 15 February 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ 2406:3400:319:E3F0:717F:28D:FFE5:CB86 (talk) 23:17, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Zupotachyon (talk) 23:28, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 May 2021

change an admixture to a mixture Silly2523 (talk) 14:37, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: Admixture is the correct word there. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 14:43, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 May 2021 (2)

change An alloy is an admixture of metals, or a metal combined with one or more other elements. to An alloy is a mixture of metals, or a metal combined with one or more other elements. Silly2523 (talk) 14:47, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

 Not done for now: Is there a particular reason you think admixture is incorrect? ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 14:57, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Lede alloy examples

Just a thought, but looking into the lede, having the first few examples all be things that sound like one of the metals + something (i.e red gold, white gold, sterling silver, etc) might give an unusual impression to the unfamiliar, but moving up the alloys that sound more like distinct metals in their own right, and would be known outside of a jewelry store (e.g. brass, bronze) might be helpful? Darryl from Mars (talk) 20:44, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

Hmmm. Well, I put a lot of thought into my choice of wording there. Bronze and brass and pewter are used several times throughout the article, and I think it's good to have a variety. When thinking about the lede, you kinda have to think about your target audience, and a good proportion of them tend to be children of elementary-school age, who usually won't ever read past the first few sentences to one paragraph, so it should be written at a sixth-grade level. Few at that age have any clue what tin or zinc is, but they can all be expected to know of copper, gold, and silver. I picked that as the second sentence (the first example) because it helps give a clear visual of what "mixtures of metals" from the prior sentence means. The very next sentence is followed by using the alloy which is used by far more than all others, which has it's own name: steel.

Most alloys don't have any special name of their own. Aluminum, for example, is almost never used in it's pure form outside of soda cans, yet regardless of the alloy, it's simply called aluminum. (At best, it might be preceded by a numerical designation.) Same with titanium alloys. We're just not as creative as the ancients were in naming things, or maybe all the good words have been taken. To me, it just seems more helpful to explain it first in the simplest terms possible before expanding into terminology. Zaereth (talk) 03:46, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 September 2022

Extra comma Areebman (talk) 14:43, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: Without a location in the text, this is impossible to action.  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   15:09, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Is Alloy a melted form of Metal/Mineral?

I want to know... 45.252.77.203 (talk) 13:47, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Some alloys are made by melting one metal and mixing in the other metal(s) and/or other substance(s), but then the alloy cools and becomes solid. i don't know if it's considered an alloy before it hardens. 173.67.42.107 (talk) 21:43, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Is iron oxide an alloy?

Wikipedia says An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal.

Wiktionary's first definition of alloy is A metal that is a combination of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal.

Iron oxide is a combination of iron (one metallic element) and another element (oxygen), but iron oxide is rust--is it really an alloy? But if it's not, what's the actual definition of an alloy? "A metal combined with at least one other element, not counting oxygen"? Sounds kind of awkward...

Posting this question on Wikipedia and Wiktionary.

173.67.42.107 (talk) 21:43, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

The first sentence is simply a starting point, and as such it's always going to be inherently vague. If you read on to the second sentence, it clarifies the difference between chemical compounds, which is what rust is. "Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, opacity, and luster..." Things like rust, table salt, rubies, emeralds, and so on are indeed made primarily out of metals, yet the big difference is that they don't behave like metals or look like metals. Many of these things are very brittle and even transparent. In alloys where non-metallic ingredients are added, those non-metallics are typically in rather small percentages, so rather than forming its own crystalline structure, such as sodium chloride or aluminum oxide, the non-metallics are more like impurities in the metallic crystals, so instead of forming a completely different substance (a compound of the two, or three, or however many), it still retains most of the properties that make a metal a metal.

If you want the deep science, then an alloy is a mixture of of elements where the bonds between atoms, are metallic bonds rather than covalent bonds found in chemical compounds. But an article should begin at a sixth-grade level, because this is a general encyclopedia for everyone (not just scientists), so it's never good to start off by tossing people into the deep end. Better to work up to that, so it's found near the end of the lede. Zaereth (talk) 22:04, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

This is really simple to understand. An alloy is a mixture. Iron oxide is a compound. The main difference between a mixture and a compound is that in a mixture, the constituents retain their individual properties, whereas in a compound, the properties of that compound are totally different from those of its constituent elements. You can't just compare iron oxide and alloys, because they are two different types of substances. CrAzY1357924680 (talk) 11:17, 22 November 2023 (UTC)