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[Noble Digger]

You only receive force equal to what you apply when your sword strikes and stops dead. This is actually why swords are helpful, because the cutting edge has a lower surface area than the hilt of the sword, the hand swinging the sword has an intense mechanical advantage over the flesh or armor being struck by the sword. Matter is often hard stuff, some of that energy is lost in the process of shearing materials struck by the blade, some lost to heat\friction between the sides of the blade and the material it's moving through (including the air!), some lost to sound and reverberation (CLANG), some soaked up by the hand's contact with the handle.

[Bandages]

You're all wrong.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Odd!x]

ah, yes.
thanks for dredging up that meme, it's one of my favorites 

[eerr]

You only receive force equal to what you apply when your sword strikes and stops dead. This is actually why swords are helpful, because the cutting edge has a lower surface area than the hilt of the sword, the hand swinging the sword has an intense mechanical advantage over the flesh or armor being struck by the sword. Matter is often hard stuff, some of that energy is lost in the process of shearing materials struck by the blade, some lost to heat\friction between the sides of the blade and the material it's moving through (including the air!), some lost to sound and reverberation (CLANG), some soaked up by the hand's contact with the handle.

so adamantium has almost no friction because of smoothness, similar to the properties of obsidian?

[Anticipation]

Newton's Third Law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

My physics teacher swears at me whenever one of us says that *cringe*

[piecewise]

'Adamant' is Latin for diamond - symbolising toughness, beauty, value and strength. Adamantine is the metal version of diamonds, basically. >.>

Adamant isn't Latin for diamonds.

Adamant basically means "unyielding or unbreakable" in Latin and that is why it was applied to any seemingly indestructible substance.

[piecewise]

The "Island of Stability" theory does not involve negative subatomic particles; even wikipedia could tell you that. It illustrates that there might be some elements even larger/heavier than the ones we've synthesized that are actually stable. They're still trying to reach that point, and striving for it has created all the elements beginning with "U" at the bottom of the table.

The island of stability theory has been pretty heavily discredited.

[Fieari]

Someone once calculated the density of Adamantine, of course making a few assumptions about the volume of different objects, like blocks, ect. (Perfectly reasonable assumptions, however.) Adamantine was about as dense as a thick gas.

So, I think it's been established that we're dealing with fanciful metals...

I wouldn't say a thick gas, I'd say a pretty light gas, actually. The density of adamantine in the game is lighter than real world air, yet somewhat denser than helium. All while being supernaturally rigid and strong.

[Kavalion]

Adamantine is from the greek Adamantos actually- seen in the Theogony, where it's the material that the sickle Gaia gives Cronos to… "deal with" Uranus.

This.  Adamantine is a greek legend.  The seemingly magical metal used by the gods.

[sweitx]

Newton's Third Law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

My physics teacher swears at me whenever one of us says that *cringe*

Or the layman way of teaching it.
"If you kick the wall, the wall kick back just as hard."

[sweitx]

Adamantine is from the greek Adamantos actually- seen in the Theogony, where it's the material that the sickle Gaia gives Cronos to… "deal with" Uranus.

This.  Adamantine is a greek legend.  The seemingly magical metal used by the gods.

I always thought DF Adamantine is an acceptable break from reality, being a mythical metal that's impossibly strong yet lighter then air.
Kind of like Unobtainium.

[Odd!x]

I believe that's the common conception, but (at least, my perception of) this thread is to try to line up adamantine with the rest of the game, as most of it is lifted directly from reality (mythical beasts excluded)

[Dwarf]

Adamantine, being solid and lighter than air, is the perfect material for hovery devices!

[Shinziril]

Actually, looking at the raws, it appears that adamantine is nowhere near being lighter than air.  While it is still incredibly light, its density appears to be 200 kg/m³ or 0.2 g/cm³, one-fifth that of water and slightly more than that of balsa wood.  This would support the notion that adamantine is a sort of lattice structure made out of much denser adamantine strands (as this sort of structure is how balsa achieves its moderate strength while being so ridiculously light - cellulose/lignin lattice with many airspaces).

[Lord Dakoth]

It's all a lie: Gnomes hold the universe together.