The Diwali sweets at Smita's house are covered with a paper-thin layer of silver called varq
The Diwali sweets at Smita's house are covered with a paper-thin layer of silver called varq. Smita says varq is real silver, beaten again and again until it becomes that thin. Mithun says that's impossible — no metal can be thinner than paper, so varq must be some kind of shiny paper. Whose reasoning holds up?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Smita is right, silver is malleable and can be beaten into extremely thin sheets
Why
Mithun's doubt comes from everyday experience: the metal things around us — spoons, utensils, keys — are thick and stiff, so a metal thinner than paper seems impossible. But many metals are malleable: hammering doesn't crack them, it spreads them out into thinner and thinner sheets. Silver is one of the most malleable metals there is. Varq-makers place small pieces of silver between sheets of paper or leather and beat them for a long time, until the silver is far thinner than the paper itself — so thin that it crumbles at a touch. Kitchen aluminium foil is the same idea with a different metal. A non-metal behaves very differently: a piece of coal or sulphur hit with a hammer simply shatters into powder. Test: hammer a used aluminium bottle cap on a hard floor — it flattens and spreads out without breaking; hammer a lump of coal — it breaks into pieces. Smita is right: varq is real silver, and it can be made so thin because metals like silver are malleable.
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