hörte

Härte, or hardness, is the German term for the resistance of a material or object to permanent deformation, scratching, or indentation at its surface. In physics and materials science, hardness describes how difficult it is to permanently deform or scratch a material through surface contact.

Hardness is commonly assessed by standardized tests. The Mohs scale, used in mineralogy, ranks minerals from 1 to 10 by scratch resistance, but it is ordinal and depends on the tested materials and conditions. In engineering and industrial contexts, indentation tests such as Vickers, Rockwell, and Brinell are more widely used for metals, ceramics, and coatings. These tests apply a defined load with a diamond pyramid or a spherical indenter and derive a hardness value (for example HV, HRC, HRB, HB) from the size or depth of the resulting impression.

Hardness serves as a useful indicator of wear resistance and general strength in many materials, but it is not identical to other mechanical properties. For instance, a material can be hard but brittle, and thus not particularly tough, which is a measure of resistance to fracture under impact or shock. Conversely, some materials combine moderate hardness with high toughness.

In German usage, Härte also appears in everyday expressions referring to harshness or severity, such as die Härte des Lebens (the hardness or harshness of life). The concept thus stretches from technical engineering to metaphorical language.