Which consequence faced early Bronze Age smiths when rapidly cooling newly cast axes?

💡 Explanation

When rapidly cooling bronze after casting, differential thermal contraction induces stress gradients that lead to crack initiation due to limited ductility, creating increased crystal lattice imperfections. Therefore brittleness increases, rather than grain refinement which necessitates controlled annealing, or enhanced hardening needing cold working processes.

• Which risk increased when 18th-century wooden warships remained at sea for extended deployments?
• Which long-term consequence resulted from intensive maize cultivation displacing diverse wetland vegetation on Aztec chinampas?
• Which optical effect explains Ibn al-Haytham's observation that the perceived size of celestial objects increases near the horizon?
• Which structural failure mode commonly affected timber sailing ships as they aged, especially in tropical waters?
• Which effect limited Roman ballista projectile range as wood dryness changed seasonally?
• Which consequence resulted from Al-Khwarizmi's introduction of algebraic methods for land distribution amidst complex inheritance laws?