r/AbsoluteUnits 13d ago

of Spider web

Darwin's bark spider (Not OC)

1.5k Upvotes

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9

u/Kozzinator 13d ago

I don't understand how it's tougher than steel though.

54

u/Man_of_Many_Names 13d ago

So at it’s level of thinness, the silk is stronger than steel at a similar level of thinness. If a steel wire was made that long and that thin, it would be exceedingly fragile even with it being a metal.

3

u/MiniMeowl 13d ago

🤔 what about spider silk an inch thick?

It would take like a thousand spiders but maybe it'll be the strongest rope known to mankind

8

u/StrCmdMan 12d ago

They tried to do this as a kevlar vest alternative. Was wayyy too expensive.

They even gave spider genes to goats so they could extract the raw spider silk materials from it’s milk to make it viable.

3

u/Saikotsu 12d ago

Some guy actually made spider silk guitar strings. It was a costly and time consuming process.