Cutting

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Cutting

Cutting is the separation of a physical object, or a portion of a physical object, into two portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. An implement commonly used for cutting is the knife

Knife

A knife is a handheld sharp-edged instrument consisting of a handle attached to a blade that is used for cutting. Knives were used at least Stone Age, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools....
or in medical cases the scalpel

Scalpel

A scalpel is a small but extremely sharp knife used for surgery, anatomical dissection, and various arts and crafts. Scalpels may be disposable or re-usable....
. However, any sufficiently sharp object is capable of cutting if it has a hardness sufficiently larger than the object being cut, and if it is applied with sufficient force.

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Encyclopedia

Knife

Scalpel

Saw

A saw is a tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive wear edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade or an abrasive....
which removes material in the process of cutting.

Cutting is a compressive

Physical compression

Physical compression is the result of the subjection of a material to compressive stress, resulting in reduction of volume. The opposite of compression is tension ....
and shear

Shear

Shear as a noun may refer to:*Bias , in clothing design, fabric may be cut on the shear*Cosmic shear, an effect of distortion of image of distant galaxies due to deflection of light by matter, as predicted by general relativity ...
ing phenomenon, and occurs only when the total stress

Stress (physics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces....
generated by the cutting implement exceeds the ultimate strength

Strength of materials

In materials science, the strength of a material refers to the material's ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. Yield strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve beyond which the material begins deformation that cannot be reversed upon removal of the loading....
of the material of the object being cut. The simplest applicable equation is stress = force/area: The stress generated by a cutting implement is directly proportional to the force with which it is applied, and inversely proportional to the area of contact. Hence, the smaller the area (i.e., the sharper the cutting implement), the less force is needed to cut something.

When referring to propagating plants, cutting is one of the methods that can be used. It involves cutting a part of the plant typically a healthy shoot, with sharp and sterile scissors or any other cutting device, and then placing the removed part in water. Some cuttings do not require water. Certain shoots when cut are able to grow when placed in vermiculite or potting soil. However, the former is the easiest to do as most shoots when cut from the main plant need time to grow roots, and then they are able to be transferred to potting soil.

Cutting

Tools commonly used for cutting

See also

External links