Talk:Ceramic

Venus figure
Does anyone know why the Venus of Willendorf is shown here? This is made of carved limestone, and is not ceramic. Better would be for it to be replaced with the Venus of Dolni Vestonice, which is ceramic. User name for this site (talk) 13:10, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Sure. But, as with all the other edits you are making around the place, please use references. Johnbod (talk) 13:51, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Basic definition
In the opening sentence, ceramics are described as being "made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material", but then later, some metallic ceramics are mentioned. Also, some of the advanced ceramics which are mentioned later in the article are not made by shaping and firing the material. In the source for the opening sentence, it says this definition is "strictu sensu" (sic), so this seems too narrow a definition, considering the context of the source and the broader definition used both there and in the rest of this article. 82.3.113.43 (talk) 16:40, 8 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Well, the article doesn't really mention any metallic ceramics that I can tell. Many ceramics are made from metal compounds such as metal-oxides, nitrides, or carbides, but the fact that they contain metals does not make them metallic, that is, they don't behave as metals. For example, aluminum oxide is the main compound found in rubies and sapphires, but are transparent, hard and brittle, and electrically insulating. The article does mention composite ceramics that contain metallic matrices, but that's really no different from a composite plastic that contains metallic reinforcing fibers that serve the same purpose as rebar in concrete. When most people think of ceramic they think of earthware made of clays, but they can be made of almost any non-organic, nonmetallic material. The main thing that separates it from, say, concrete or porcelain is all ceramics are made by sintering the material together without fully melting it, leaving it somewhat porous, whereas concrete is made by a chemical reaction and porcelain is fully melted during firing, turning it into a non-porous glass. Zaereth (talk) 20:46, 11 March 2024 (UTC)