Why is metallic solids malleable?

Answer 1

The concept is that most metals, when they deform, do so much in the same way as silly putty. The opposite of malleable would be brittle. Brittle materials generally do not deform very much, they just shatter. A good example of a brittle material is stick chalk, such as would be used on a teacher's chalk board.

Back to the malleable metals... If you had super-strong robotic hands, you would be able to mush and smear metals in your hands in a manner similar to silly putty - but that's the catch: you have to be super strong.

It's important to note that not all metals are malleable. As a matter of fact, the physical characteristics of metals change with temperature. There is usually a temperature in which metals turn into a liquid, called the melting point, and there is also a temperature in which metals go from "malleable" (also known as the "ductile" state) to a brittle state. This temperature, which is usually very cold, is called the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. Just like when ice cream is stiff when it is really, really cold, and ice cream gets mushy when it warms up, so does metal.

Sometimes, the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature can cause problems. The famous sinking of the Titanic was supposedly due to the metal hull breaking against an iceberg instead of stretching, or plasticly deforming (that's what us engineers call malleable or ductile deformation). The water was sooooo cold around the Titanic that the metal of the hull became brittle.

Answer 2

Metals are malleable because individual atoms are able to roll over one another without breaking the metallic bond. Some metals are more malleable than others.

Answer 3

I think because of light.