It's important to clarify that "biting through" involves a combination of hardness (resistance to scratching) and the material's structural integrity (how easily it fractures or breaks). While teeth can scratch harder materials, successfully biting through something depends on its brittleness. Given that, Apatite is among the hardest minerals a human could potentially damage with their teeth, but successfully biting through it is another matter.
Here's a breakdown:
Understanding Hardness and Brittleness
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Hardness: A material's resistance to being scratched. The Mohs scale measures hardness, with diamond being the hardest (10) and talc being the softest (1). Tooth enamel is around 5 on the Mohs scale.
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Brittleness: A material's tendency to fracture or break when subjected to stress. Even if a material is hard, it can still be brittle.
The Role of Tooth Enamel
Tooth enamel, composed primarily of hydroxyapatite (related to Apatite mentioned above), is the hardest substance in the human body. Its hardness allows us to chew food, but it's not indestructible.
Materials and Potential Damage
According to research, several materials like platinum, iron, copper, tin, and lead have lower hardness values compared to Apatite. This means, theoretically, teeth could potentially scratch or otherwise damage these substances more easily. However, whether a person could actually bite through them depends on factors beyond hardness:
- Brittleness of the material: Is it prone to shattering or bending?
- Thickness of the material: A thin sheet of even a hard material will be easier to break than a solid block.
- Force applied: The strength of the bite.
- Angle of bite: How effectively the force is applied.
Considerations Regarding Digestibility
The reference mentions digestibility. That's because even if you could bite through a material, attempting to swallow some metals is not recommended and could lead to serious health consequences.
Conclusion
While teeth can potentially damage relatively hard materials with some level of Moh's Hardness such as Apatite, the ability to actually bite through something depends heavily on factors beyond just the mineral hardness of the material being bitten, with emphasis on brittleness and overall structural integrity of the material being tested.
