Shine bright like Tungsten

Answers for Globle, Metazooa, Elemingle and more from Apr 28 - May 4

The Trainwreck Labs Newsletter

Coming to your inbox every Monday with a brand new fun-fact and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.

This week, we have…

  • A fun fact inspired by Elemingle

  • Answers to last week's games

  • Reader survey

Shine bright like Tungsten

How could diamonds be a girls’s best friend when tungsten is so much more useful!

If you were asked what the toughest natural material out there is, diamonds might be top of mind. But don't sleep on tungsten (Elemingle answer for May 4), one of the hardest metals on earth with a rating of 7.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Tungsten is so hard that we use diamonds to shape tungsten alloys!

This remarkable strength makes tungsten invaluable across many applications. In industry, tungsten compounds are used to harden saw blades and create drill bits that can cut through almost anything. For consumers, tungsten carbide has become popular for wedding rings due to its scratch resistance and durability. In defense applications, tungsten's high density (19.3 g/cm³, nearly twice that of lead) makes it ideal for armor-piercing bullets and missile components.

With all that rough and tough exterior, you might be surprised to know that tungsten is also responsible for that cozy, warm glow that Instagram home design accounts are always touting. Its unique properties—particularly its extraordinary melting point of 3,422°C (the highest of all elements)—make it perfect for lamp filaments. When electricity passes through the thin tungsten wire, it can heat to incandescence without melting, producing that characteristic warm light.

This application was pioneered in the early 1900s by William Coolidge at General Electric. Through persistent experimentation from 1904-1909, Coolidge developed a process to convert tungsten powder into fine, durable filaments. By 1910, commercial tungsten filament bulbs reached the market, quickly becoming the new standard that eclipsed Edison's carbon filament bulbs. These tungsten bulbs dominated household lighting until the recent emergence of LEDs and compact fluorescent bulbs over the past couple of decades.

Learn more: Britannica, WebMD, American Scientist, Live Science

Trivia

General Electric marketed all of their tungsten filaments under the brand name Mazda, after Ahura Mazda, the Persian god of what?

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Answers to last week's games

Monday, April 28 to Sunday, May 4.

Globle

  • Apr 28 Angola

  • Apr 29 Malawi

  • Apr 30 Oman

  • May 1 Kenya

  • May 2 Saint Lucia

  • May 3 North Macedonia

  • May 4 Norway

  • May 5 Play now!

Globle: Capitals

  • Apr 28 Madrid

  • Apr 29 Porto-Novo

  • Apr 30 Dodoma

  • May 1 Helsinki

  • May 2 Lusaka

  • May 3 Phnom Penh

  • May 4 Sao Tome

  • May 5 Play now!

Chronogram

  • #758 Wilhelm II

  • #759 Jean-Paul Marat

  • #760 F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • #761 Henry Ford

  • #762 Francis Bacon

  • #763 Mata Hari

  • #764 Herbert Hoover

  • #765 Play now!

Fictogram

  • #525 Fox Mulder

  • #526 Annie Wilkes

  • #527 Calvin

  • #528 Patrick Bateman

  • #529 Lisa Simpson

  • #530 Obi-Wan Kenobi

  • #531 Hagar the Horrible

  • #532 Play now!

Metazooa

  • #637 viper

  • #638 nautilus

  • #639 hare

  • #640 bald eagle

  • #641 puffin

  • #642 beaver

  • #643 elk

  • #644 Play now!

Metaflora

  • #576 rye

  • #577 basil

  • #578 caper

  • #579 rhubarb

  • #580 honeysuckle

  • #581 spruce

  • #582 shea nut

  • #583 Play now!

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

  • #440 exist → present → delivery → carrier

  • #441 suppose → assume → answer → number → telephone

  • #442 but → statement → declaration → admission

  • #443 iron → substance → amount → many → several

  • #444 percentage → amount → minutes → time → recently

  • #445 global → globalization → finance → spending

  • #446 anticipate → foretelling → reading → library

  • #447 Play now!

Elemingle

  • #96 Moscovium

  • #97 Gadolinium

  • #98 Lutetium

  • #99 Erbium

  • #100 Tennessine

  • #101 Tungsten

  • #102 Plutonium

  • #103 Play now!

Forgeous

Forgery of the week from May 1
68% accurate

Play Forgeous for May 5

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!

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