Ok. Here is the conversion factor. 0.145 psi equals 1 Pa. 1Gpa equals 1,000,000,000 Pa. GPa are Gigapascals, a metric measure of pressure or stress. The conversions from psi to Pa aren't exact. I rounded them off to 3 decimal places. As far as a hardness guess, this is probably off the Rc scale. Just to give an idea, Mission Knives lists their A-2 blades at 310,000 psi with a hardness of 56 Rc. There is a correlation between hardness and strength for metals. Unless a specific metal is being considered, only an estimate can be made. 16 GPa works out to something along the order of 2,000,000,000 psi. Some one check my math. Given the above comparison from Mission Knives, I think the assumption that 16 GPa is off the Rc scale is pretty reasonable. For another comparison, 440C hardened and tempered at 600 degrees F has a tensile strength of about 1.8 GPa or 275,000 psi. Actually, these are the yield strength figures.
Metallic glasses were new when I first heard about them. They had some specialty applications, but nothing very common. They were mostly limited to the realm of research and development. That was about 3 years ago. If what was said in the article is true, then a lot of things have been learned since I read about them.
One thing that I question is what property has a value of 16 GPa. They didnt say what specific property had a value that high. If its tensile strenth, then they indeed have something to yell about. It sounds more like a measure of modulus of elasticity (MOE). Many high strenth metals have a MOE in the GPa range. MOE is a measure of how much a material stretches as increasing force is applied, like a spring.
Very interesting stuff.
