• Question: How are spider webs so strong?

    Asked by aka Agent Jellybean to Anna, Hayley, Iain, Rebecca on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Jones

      Rebecca Jones answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Spider silk is made up of a protein that spiders use to make webs and help catch prey. There are a few types of slik which are used for different purposes but those used for webs are dragline silks. This type of silk has exceptional mechanical properties with it having both a high tensile strength (max strength before breaking) and extensibility (how much it can be bent). The combination of these means that a spider’s web can put up with a lot of force before breaking.

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