Abstract:
The importance of materials has been known and realized for ages. Dating back to 3000
BC the signi cant contribution of materials in the development of civilization was recognized.
Starting from the origin of human life on Earth, the Stone Age to the Bronze Age
and more recently the use of iron and steel around 1850, which enabled the railroads and
helped in the building of the modern infrastructure of the industrial world the central
commonality has been materials. Starting in the 1930s understanding of how materials
behave in a certain way, and why they di er in properties was made possible with
the atomistic understanding allowed by quantum mechanics, that rst explained atoM.S.
and then solids. The central domain of Materials Science involves the combination of
physics, chemistry, and the focus on the relationship between properties of a material and
its microstructure. The development of this eld allowed designing new materials and
provided a knowledge base for engineering applications. Properties are the materials way
of responding to the environment. For example, the mechanical, electrical and magnetic
properties are the responses to mechanical, electrical and magnetic forces, respectively.
Other important properties include thermal (heat capacity, transmission of heat), optical
(absorption, transmission, and scattering of light), and the chemical stability in contact
with the environment.
