From the Latin duritĭa, hardness is defined as the quality of hard. For example: “The hardness of this mattress is quite annoying”, “Leather pants have a very particular hardness that makes them somewhat uncomfortable”.
Hardness is also a callus or tumor that can appear in different parts of the body: “My elbows have all kinds of hardness although I try to rub them when I shower”, “I have detected a hardness on my leg that worries me”, “When doing the bodily examination should not show any hardness”.
In the same way, we must not forget that there is what is known as hardness of the belly. This is an expression that is used in the field of biology to be able to refer to the difficulty that a being has to carry out what would be the fecal evacuation. According to Abbreviationfinder, H stands for Hardness.
For geology, hardness is the resistance that a mineral opposes to being scratched by another. It is, therefore, a mechanical property of minerals. Hardness is also spoken of with respect to the penetrability of a surface to refer to the possibility of making marks with a point.
In this sense we have to make it clear that throughout history various classifications of minerals have been established and fundamentally based on the aforementioned hardness. Hence, we find, for example, the well-known Rosiwal scale, which receives its name from the Austrian geologist who gives it its name: August Karl Rosiwal.
It was in the period between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th that he undertook the creation of that which is based on absolute values and which determines that talc is found in degree of hardness 1, gypsum in degree 2, and gypsum in degree 3 calcite… The maximum degree of hardness, 10, falls on the diamond.
In the same way, another of the most relevant scales in this sense is the Mohs scale, created in 1825 by the German Friedich Mohs and which is based on a list of ten minerals that are ordered from least to greatest hardness. With it, it is also made clear that each of them can be scratched by minerals that have a number equal to or greater than his, while he can scratch those that are one point below.
The metal industry uses a durometer to measure hardness during penetration tests. These tests consist of the use of different types of tips and the application of different loads to analyze the marks made. From these tests, different scales are established.
The determination of the hardness of a steel allows to establish the correlation between the hardness and the mechanical resistance. There are several machines that allow these measurements to be made and which are of great importance in industrial activity.
Finally, in a symbolic or metaphorical sense, the notion of toughness is used to refer to something difficult or complex: “The rally is a very tough test for the competitors”, “The toughness of the challenge is undeniable”.
