"A pencil thick spider's silk thread is capable of stopping a Boeing-747 in full flight. "
Quantitatively, spider silk is five times stronger than steel of the same diameter. It has been suggested that a Boeing 747 could be stopped in flight by a single pencil-width strand and spider silk is almost as strong as Kevlar, the toughest man-made polymer.
A spider web “made of pencil-thick, spider-silk fibres can catch a fully loaded Jumbo Jet Boeing 747 with a weight of 380 tonnes,” states biotech firm Amsilk.
Spider silk fibers have a strength rating of 1.1 gigapascals, which is not as strong as Kevlar's 3.6 gigapascals. But, they are tougher than Kevlar. Rigid spider silk has a toughness factor of 180 megajoules/meter compared to Kelvar's toughness factor of 50 megajoules/meter.
You may have heard that spider silk is stronger than steel. It's true. The silk that spiders use to build their webs, trap their pray and dangle from the ceiling to haunt our dreams is one of the strongest materials on earth.
Pound for pound, spider silk is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar.
Why is spider silk better than traditional silk…or even Kevlar and steel? Not only is spider silk stronger than Kevlar and steel, spider silk is extremely flexible, making it more comfortable and providing higher mobility and movement for the wearer.
In fact, in terms of tensile strength, which is the maximum amount of stress a material can endure before breaking, spider silk is five times tougher than steel. If it was converted to human size, it would be strong enough to stop a jetliner in its flightpath.
Thanks for the question, George – the simple answer is that spider silk breaks easily because it's really, really, really thin. A thread in the web of a garden spider is just 0.003 millimetres across – that's more than 20 times thinner than a hair from your head.
Spider silk is five times stronger than steel—now, scientists know why | Science | AAAS.
Would it surprise you to learn that, for its weight, spider web silk is stronger and tougher than steel? A web made of strands of silk as thick as a pencil could stop a Boeing 747 in flight.
Only heavy insects and those that fly quickly can pass through a spider's web. When an insect is entangled in a web, permanent activity is the best way of getting free. Small wings are conducive to a successful escape, as is a special surface structure of the wings (scales, hairs, lipoid surface).
Spider silk is the toughest fibre found in nature. When stretched or pulled, it can absorb more energy than steel or nylon without rupturing, and can be used to make bulletproof vests. It is also biocompatible and can be used in the production of surgical thread and artificial ligaments.
Plain and simply, this area of Gavà has environmental laws that don't allow flight paths to pass through the air space. The sound generated by the airplanes disturbs wildlife and means they have to take a detour via the sea - the planes therefore avoid this area of Gavà.
Humans are not physically designed to fly. We cannot create enough lift to overcome the force of gravity (or our weight). It's not only wings that allow birds to fly. Their light frame and hollow bones make it easier to counteract gravity.
Given a fully loaded train carrying nearly 1,000 passengers barreling down the track at top speed, they found that a spider web would have to stand up to 300,000 Newtons of force.
Spider webs burn quite easily. A temperature 10-20 degrees above room temperature is enough to make a spider web burn. However, they do not light up into a flame; they simply melt away. Still, it is not recommended to try to get rid of webs by burning.
Removing Spider Webs Reduces Spider Populations
The American house spider can have as many as 400 eggs in its egg sac. When you remove spider webs that have these paper-like sacs attached, you stop those spiders from hatching. This is an easy and all-natural way to manage spider populations.
But unlike silkworms, harvesting silk directly from spiders is not a commercially viable option. Spiders require vast amounts of space for their webs, individual spiders do not produce high quantities of silk, and spiders tend to eat each other.
The huntsman spider, commonly found in Australia and other parts of the world, typically has a 1 inch (2.5 centimeter) body and a leg span of up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters), though larger species can have a leg span of up to 12 inches (30 centimeters).
The largest spider web ever found was a massive 82 foot wide web spanning a river in Madagascar. Discovered deep in the heart of the Andaside-Mantadia National Park, this humongous web was created by a little known spider – the Darwin's bark spider.
Re-spun silkworm silk is 70% stronger than spider silk -- ScienceDaily.
Using cobwebs or spider webs has been done since ancient times when Greeks and Romans treated wounded soldiers with it to stop bleeding. Soldiers would also use a combination of honey and vinegar to clean deep wounds and then cover the whole thing with balled-up spider webs.
Tests indicated that 16 silk layers could stop a 9mm bullet, and that the vests could provide protection against high-velocity rifle shots as well as . 22 caliber handguns.
Spider silk is highly flexible, extremely stretchable, surpasses steel in strength, and most importantly, can be formed into a mesh that would stop a bullet.