MicrohardnessThe technical definition of ‘hardness’ is similar to our intuitive understanding of the word: it refers to the resistance of a material to indentation. As bone consists of two major components, one (mineral) which is considerably harder than the other (collagen), the microhardness of the composite material reflects their relative proportions or the degree of mineralization of the bone. This is altered by a number of processes, physiological, pathological, or pharmaceutical, and microhardness testing provides a means of assessing these changes.
KH number = 1.451 * F / d^2 Where "F" is the test force and "d" is the length of the indentation The Knoop hardness is a material property and is, in principle, independent of the test conditions.
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