Facts about ceramics

• 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).