A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling.
Early pottery vessels were used primarily for storing liquids, grains and other items.
Traditional ceramic raw materials include clay minerals such as kaolinite.
The earliest ceramics were pottery objects made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials, hardened in fire.
9,000 year old sites in Turkey with ancient pottery have yielded mostly bowls and cups.
The potter’s wheel was invented in Mesopotamia in 4000 B.C.
The word ceramic comes from the Greek word "κεραμικός" (keramikos), meaning "of pottery" or "for pottery".
High-tech ceramic is used in watchmaking for producing watch cases. The material is valued by watchmakers for its light weight, scratch-resistance, durability and smooth touch.
Ceramics are used in the manufacture of knives. The blade of a ceramic knife will stay sharp for much longer than that of a steel knife, although it is more brittle and can be snapped by dropping it on a hard surface.
Ceramics are increasingly used in motor sports, for example on ceramic disk brakes.
Ceramics such as alumina and boron carbide have been used in ballistic armored vests to repel large-calibre rifle fire.
Ceramic balls can be used to replace steel in ball bearings.
In the early 1980s, Toyota researched production of an adiabatic ceramic engine which can run at a temperature of over 6000 °F (3300 °C).
Recently, there have been advances in ceramics which include bio-ceramics, such as dental implants and synthetic bones.
Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, weak in shearing and tension.
Ceramic materials withstand chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environment. Ceramics generally can withstand very high temperatures such as temperatures that range from 1,000 °C to 1,600 °C (1,800 °F to 3,000 °F).
