What Are Man-Made Materials?
A man-made material is one that is manufactured through human effort. These materials are usually made using natural, raw materials. Examples of man-made materials are glass, rayon and nylon.
Paper, steel, synthetic rubber, polyester, wax paper, concrete and silicone rubber are all man-made materials as well. Glass is a commonly used man-made material that is made from sand.
Nylon is a man-made material that looks like silk; however, it is water resistant, which gives it an advantage over most natural materials. Nylon is used for cloth, carpets and fishing nets. It was first produced in 1935 by Wallace Carothers.
Man-made materials are often used as building materials. Some examples of man-made materials used in buildings are fired bricks, clay blocks, concrete, fabric, foam, glass, metal and ceramics.
Scientists have managed to make some creative man-made materials. For example, they have created titanium foam. This foam is incredibly light and also very strong. Scientists have also discovered how to create artificial spider silk. Silk is considered a wonder material because of its vast majority of uses, but it used to be hard to gather in bulk. A Japanese company called Spiber managed to crack the code for creating synthetic spider silk.
