On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 23:43:35 -0500 "Hal Rosser"
wrote:

eutectic (if my memory serves) just means it's either solid or liquid - and
won't just 'soften' - like ice and water.

The eutectic alloy is the one which has the right proportions to give
it the minimum melting point for a given set of constituent metals.
I've only seen the word applied to binary alloys, but I suppose it
could be applied to alloys of 3 or more metals, too. I'm not sure if
that's a proper use of the term, however.

A side effect of using the eutectic alloy is that there is a
distinctive melting point. When the alloy is non-eutectic, there are
separate solidus and liquidus points, between which the alloy is just
more or less "slushy."

There is no slushy region when a eutectic alloy melts. This sounds
like what Hal was describing above.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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