/sci/ - Science & Math

I have a question about Osmium. So it's the most dense thing on the planet, but according to wikipedia it's also brittle. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. When I think about diamonds I think that they are very dense but also very hard. My understanding was that these two things were tied together. Exactly how brittle is Osmium? Saw you had a solid bar, could you snap it with your hand? Or break it by smashing it onto the ground?

Say you wanted to make a hammer out of something extremely hard and dense. If Osmium isn't the best element to make a hammer, what would be the best compromise? Diamond?