If diamonds are so very hard, why can they be shattered with a hammerblow?

Subject: If diamonds are so very hard, why can they be shattered with a hammerblow?

Date: Wed Oct 22 04:37:17 1997
Posted by Tanya Jackson
Grade level: 10-12
School: Home-educated
City: Lancaster State/Province: Lancashire
Country: U.K.
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 877513037.Ch

Message:

Diamonds are used on the edges of drills used to get through the 
hardest rocks, so why can they sometimes shatter so easily?  Is it to 
do with the crystalline structure of the diamond?

Re: If diamonds are so very hard, why can they be shattered with a hammerblow?

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