How would changing the porpotions of substances in a alloy change its properties
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How would changing the proportions of substances in an alloy change its properties?
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BANDMANJOE eNotes educator | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
An alloy is a mixture of two or more metals, designed to give a product that is substantially better in some respect than any of the individual metals that went into it's composition. For example, brass is an alloy made of the mixing of the two metals, copper and zinc. Brass produces a metallic alloy that is more rigid than copper, which bends and sways easily under duress. Zinc is brittle and fragile in terms of metal malleability. Brass, a combination of the two metals, is used in the production of brass musical instruments and pipe fittings where volatile gasses are used. The alloy is produced with a certain ratio one metal to the other. If one were to change the ratio, it would be certainly reasonable to expect a change in the physical characteristics of the resulting alloy mixture. In the example of brass musical instruments, if one were to increase the copper and decrease the zinc, the result would be an instrument that would dent easier, possibly bend when subjected to the daily wear and tear an instrument would be expected to go through.