system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How are new alloys discovered?

Some alloys have very a long list of very specific amounts of constituents.  


For example, Eglin steel is defined as having:  
 \- Iron (84.463–90%)  
 \- Carbon (0.16–0.35%)  
 \- Manganese (0.85%)  
 \- Silicon (max. 1.25%)  
 \- Chromium (max. 1.50–3.25%)  
 \- Molybdenum (max. 0.55%)  
 \- Nickel (5.00%)  
 \- Tungsten (0.70–3.25%)  
 \- Vanadium (0.05–0.3%)  
 \- Copper (0.50%)  
 \- Phosphorus (impurity, max. 0.015%)  
 \- Sulfur (impurity, max. 0.012%)  
 \- Calcium (max. 0.02%)  
 \- Nitrogen (impurity, max. 0.14%)  
 \- Aluminium (max. 0.05%)

How do you end up with these exact quantities of elements? Is it by trial-and-error? Or is there some theoretical basis for mixing the ingredients? Can you predict the material's properties from based on the composition?
gpt
You can predict but it’s not always an exact science. For instance adding chromium to steel essentially makes it stainless steel but it’s still magnetic. Adding a small amount of nickel makes it non magnetic which makes sense but it also increases the corrosion properties of the metal and they are not really sure why this is. Metallurgy involves a lot of trial and error.