THE MAIN SIGNIFICANCE OF

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
IN MATERIALS SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING
PREPARED BY

: GROUP 2

LECTURERS NAME

: DR. IQBAL AHMED

STUDENTS NAMES

ID NUMBER

MAZLIN AZURA BINTI USOP

TA13019

NADZIRAH BINTI ABDULLAH

TA13023

NIK FADILAH BINTI NEK RIDZUAN

TA13016

NUR AMIRAH ADHHA BINTI KAMARZAMAN

TA13021

WAN ZULHASIMA BINTI WAN ZULKIFLI

TA13028

Material science and engineering is a field that deals with the dicovery and design of
new materials which can be implement in manufacturing of things that are used by us daily.
Thousand years back where human only depends on nature to live and increase the continuity
of their life, it is always said that it is the hardest part of human lives. From that particular
time, they started to think of a new way on how to improved their lives by inventing new tools
that could be used to ease their chores. In stone age, stone was widely used to make tools
whereas in bronze age, the innovation that involves metals start to change the way that the
cultures developed in our daily life. Since then, the materials have been improved and
improvised to meet certain criteria that is necessary in making tools and equipments. So, it
makes us realized that how important the historical development in material science and
engineering to human as they contributes so much to us. To clarify more about this, first we
must know what is exactly mean by material science and engineering, then follows by the
history behind the material science and engineering, the details on how they are being
developed from time to time.
In the history of human civilization, different eras have often been retrospectively
identified according to an advance in the human ability to work with a new type of material.
Examples are the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. A major breakthrough in the
construal of materials occurred in the late nineteenth century, when Willard Gibbs
demonstrated that thermodynamic properties relating to atomic structure in various phases are
related to the physical properties of a material. Before the 1960s, (and in decades after), many
materials science departments at academic and research institutions were denominated
metallurgy departments, because the accentuation was on the study of metals and their
utilizations. The field has since broadened to include every class of materials, such as
ceramics, polymers, semiconductors, superconductors, superfluids, magnetic materials,
medical implant materials, and biological materials. Many consequential elements of modern
materials science have resulted from the space race. In particular, the understanding and
engineering of metallic alloys, ceramics, and other materials were utilizable for the
construction of space vehicles, space suits, and so forth, and the new knowledge was found
valuable for various consumer and industrial applications as well. Materials science has laid
the physical foundations of 21st century civilization, being integral to everything from fiber
optic cables to tennis shoes, and from solar cells to sail boats. Materials science will continue
to be centrally important in the quest for finding technological solutions toward sustainable

development in the face of environmental degradation and the continued buildup of

greenhouse gases due to the burning of carbon-based fuel.
There are a few significances of the historical development in material science and
engineering that we wanted to highlight. The first one is we can improve the physical or even
chemical properties of the materials itself. Innovation is an essential factor of development. It
can be of two types: the innovation of a product and the innovation of a process. Innovation
can be the result of a prior invention. The innovation of a product is characterised by the
introduction on the market of a new product (goods or services) that clearly modifies its
fundamental characteristics, its technical specifications, its incorporated software or any other
immaterial element as well as its foreseen usage or the ease with which it can be used. The
innovation of a process is defined by the introduction into an enterprise of a production
process, a new or clearly modified method for service provision or the delivery of products.
The result must be significant in terms of production, product quality, or the cost of
production and distribution. Purely aesthetic changes such as design or fashion phenomenon,
organisational changes or packaging modifications are excluded from the definition. These
changes are taken into account in the overall innovation. Innovation can result in a new
product or process for an enterprise but not for the market. To materialize the ideas and
improve the material properties we made use of a wide repertoire of tools and techniques. The
process of selecting quality materials must do it well to ensure a thoughtful and effective
process.

Another significance of historical development in materials science and engineering is

people will know the weaknesses of the material and their defects so that they dont waste
their time explore the same materials. Many of the important properties of materials are due to
the presence of imperfections. There are a few different kinds of defect that we can find in
natural materials. For example, an atom might be missing from a lattice site which is called a
vacancy, or there might be an extra atom where there shouldnt be which is called an
interstitial. There could be a whole plane of atoms that just starts in the middle of the crystal,
which is called an edge dislocation or two regions with different orientations of their crystal
structure might be pressed up against each other, which are called a grain boundary. These
defects all matter because they affect material properties. In nanoscience, defects are even
more important, because with a nanoscale object thats just hundreds of atoms across instead
of hundreds of billions, the percentage of atoms that are in non-ideal crystal sites can get
pretty high. The fact that real materials are not perfect is critical to material engineering. If
materials are perfect crystals then their properties would be dictated by their composition and
crystal structure. In device manufacture, controlled doping is a common use of defects to
affect material property, but dislocations and grain boundaries are often avoided because their
effect on the material property is usually undesirable. It is very important to know the material
defects so that we can search another material to develop a new material. As the conclusion,
the scientist has been research a lot of materials and their defects and weaknesses. We as a
future engineer or scientist should take the history of properties of material and the experience
from the past to develop a new material with less defect and weaknesses so that it will give
many benefits to others.

Next, by knowing the significance of historical development in materials sciences

and engineering is we can save the environment because we already know the side effect of
each element in the past. When the badness of the materials have found ,the future generations
now can make the new products based on more environmental friendly products. Materials
play a crucial role in this technology economy environment scheme. The stages for the
material are determined by firstly, the raw materials are extracted from their natural earthly
habitats by mining, drilling and so on. Then, all these materials are synthesing and processing
to become engineered materials. After that, it is further shaped, treated and resembles into
products. The last stage is the consumers purchase these products .During this all stages; there
are interactions with and impacts on the natural environment. The condition of the earths
atmosphere, water, and land depends to a large extent on how carefully we traverse the
materials cycle. Some ecological damage and landscape spoil age undoubtedly result during
the extraction of raw materials. Pollutants maybe generated that are expelled into the air and
water during synthesis and processing. In addition, any toxic chemicals that are produced
need to be disposed or discarded.
Not only that, because people nowadays already knew about all the major
things of each materials, it made them learned about the things happened in the past. For an
example of metals that already gave bad effect to the environment is lead. Lead is known as
for its basic element and metal. In the past, lead has made to lead pollution which it came
from cars during the past and lead was widely used for painting in the past due to its cheap
manufactory cost. So, for the future, we can avoid using these metals in that industry and try
to come out with new ideas to modify and improve the products by using good materials.
Next, by using this historical development of materials, it also made the
future to know well about which of the materials that are not safe to throw in the
trash.Commonly, the household items such as paint, cleaners, batteries and pesticides contain
hazardous component. These products if mishandled can be dangerous to human health and
environment.So,all the historical research about the percentage of materials in those item
really help the user to be more alert on the dangerous of the product if it is throw into the
trash.
The solution and one of the ways to save the environment is recycling. In 2003,
the United States recycling and composition efforts diverted more than 72 million tons of
material away from landfills, incinerators and instead turned those materials into valuable
resources. The several benefits of recycling are decrease the emissions of green house gases
that contribute to global climate changes, conserve natural resources and help sustain the
environment for future generation.
http://www.epa.gov/region4/recycle/faqs.htm
http://www.cep.unep.org/publications-and-resources/marine-and-coastal-issues-links/heavy-metals
Materials Sciences and Engineering/ William D.Callister /David G.Rethwisch (SI Version)(Eight Edition)

The discussion of the topic takes a look at the impact of historical development of
material science and engineering in learning session, industry or daily life itself through the
landmark discoveries, developments and the manufacturing of new materials. Materials
science is a discipline that reveals the mystery of materials by means of scientific approaches,
while the materials engineering involves the designing and processing of materials based
upon function and property requirements. Since the time of the Stone Age, human civilisation
has nearly reflected the general advancement of materials development. Humanitys early
ancestors had access to just a limited number of materials. Yet their desire for exploration,
investigation and the development of better materials recognized them from creatures and
even from their human rivals. They discovered that the properties of a material could be
altered or enhanced and with advances, the knowledge of materials is further extended.
Achievement in materials disclosure or transforming have regularly offered ascent to real and
major developments in civilisation. Through the effort of various materials researchers and
specialists, a grain of sand or a bit of stone has been changed into the profoundly profitable
silicon chip, which thus has made the new universe of today's silicon technology. As of right
now, it is proper to stress that material science or engineering is no more a helper or a sideseat player. As it were, materials researchers/ engineers now command the front-end position
in innovative development. The expanding quantities of new innovations today have ended up
conceivable on account of first achievements in new materials.
Lastly, the historical role of materials science and engineering in engineering
development was actually briefly reviewed in the discussion of how the materials science
evolved from the ancient Stone Age to todays central stage of Quantum Revolution. . It was
the discovery of a special composite material in the early 1980s that made the improvement of
the stealth airplane possible. It was also the effective advancement of high temperature
resistant porous ceramic tiles that have contributed to the safe return of the space shuttles to
Earth. The historical backdrop of human civilisation reveals a solid connection between social
successes and materials advancement. However, both the contents and the spirit of todays
materials science and engineering are quite different from that of metallurgy or engineering
materials of quite a while back. It was fascinating to note that historically a significant
forward in materials discovery or processing would prompt the rise of another civilisation of
flourishing. It gives effective tools for both microscopic and macroscopic knowledge of
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materials furthermore gives both learning in the utilisation and preservation of the planet
Earths resources.