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Engineering

The Physics of Stopping a Bullet with Ceramics

Quick fact

A thin ceramic plate can stop a high-velocity bullet that would easily penetrate much thicker steel, because the ceramic erodes the bullet's tip and spreads the impact energy across a wide area of fracture.

Why this is interesting

You might think that a material that cracks and shatters could never stop a bullet—yet ceramics are some of the best armor materials we have. How can something so brittle be so protective?