Fact Check: Is A Spider Web Stronger Than Steel

You must have probably read or heard somewhere that a spider web is stronger than steel, and you probably wondering how true that is.

According to research, the tensile strength of some steel is around 400 to 800 megapascals while a spider web can have a tensile strength of 1,000 megapascals.

For those who don’t know, tensile strength is a pulling force you can apply on something before it breaks. From this perspective, one can say that a spider web is 5 times stronger than steel.

Now you are wondering if a spider web has a tensile strength of 1,000 Megapascals and is stronger than steel why is it very easy to break?

A strand of a spider web also known as spider silk is very very thin compared to metal, therefore making it very easy to break. But suppose you could weave many strands of spider web to form a climbing rope you will be amazed to discover that the spider-web rope will become stronger than steel.

In other words, if you have two ropes of equal length, one made of steel and one made of spider web, the spider web rope will be stronger than the rope made of steel.

However, tensile strength is not the only property of strength,  when it comes to other properties of strength, such as stiffness, a spider web stands no chance against steel.

Aside from tensile strength, a spider web is also far stronger than steel in terms of strength-to-density ratio and elasticity, that is A spider web can be stretched to up to four times its original length without breaking even in extremely cold temperatures.

However, just like steel, the Spider web is made up of different silks such as dragline silk, flag silk etc. Some of these silks are stronger and more elastic than others. Different spiders produce different kinds of silk, and some spiders produce different kinds of silks.