TITLE: Which would take more force:a clean cut or a crack
QUESTION [1 upvotes]: Would it take more force to make a clean cut or a crack. For example would it be harder to crack a rock or to cut it.

REPLY [1 votes]: It's a bit speculative on my part, but I'll give my reasoning anyway.
It seems to me that cutting will take more total energy than cracking, because there is basically a thin sheet of stone that you grind out of it having to break bonds within the stone on two sides, as well as within the sheet.
But, when cutting, you can spread out this energy transfer over a longer period of time, reducing the force acting at any particular time. Cracking, in contrast, needs all of the required energy delivered by one hard blow (or a few at max).
So I would say it depends on how, with what, and how quickly you're cutting, but cutting has the potential of also working with smaller forces, cracking does not.
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