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Tin cry is the characteristic sound heard when a bar made of tin is bent. Variously described as a "screaming" or "crackling" sound, the effect is caused by the crystal twinning in the metal. The sound is not particularly loud, despite terms like "crying" and "screaming". It is very noticeable when a hot-dip tin coated sheet metal is bent at high speed over rollers during processing.
Tin cry is often demonstrated using a simple science experiment. A bar of tin will "cry" repeatedly when bent until it breaks. The experiment can then be recycled by melting and recrystallizing the metal. The low melting point of tin, 231.9 °C (449.4 °F; 505.0 K), makes re-casting easy. Tin anneals at reasonably-low temperature as well, normalizing tin's microstructure of crystallites/grains.
Although the cry is most typical of tin, a similar effect occurs in other metals, such as niobium, indium, zinc, cadmium, gallium, and solid mercury.
References
- "Video of the demonstration". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ "Deformation twinning in low symmetry metals (all content)". www.doitpoms.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-11-23.
- "LibreTexts, Chemistry, Chemistry of Indium". 2 October 2013.
- "LibreTexts, Chemistry, Chemistry of Cadmium". 2 October 2013.
- Reeder, Cody (17 Mar 2015). Bending Solid Mercury: It Cries!. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
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