The main difference between the best cement and other cements is that the best cement is itself a composite material. That is to say: it is made from a number of ingredients, each of which does a specific job. It’s easier to understand the limits of what we can make by thinking about concrete in this way.
Concrete isn’t just limestone, sand, water and air; it also contains plasticizers and fillers (fibers and minerals such as quartz) that give it strength and make it resistant to cracking. Plasticizers are also used in plastics, but they are hard to recycle. So they are expensive. The cost of making the best concrete isn’t just a matter of using more expensive ingredients; there is an extra cost in having to dispose of its waste when it has done its work.
The best cement is like this too; the best cement can only be made from high-quality ingredients.
If you’re looking for the best cement, you will have to try many before you find one. And if you’re buying it in a store, you’ll probably need to pay a premium price. If you are building a house, your choices are more limited: most people buy cement at the same price as other building materials. But if you build a house out of stone or brick, the quality of cement is not so important. All that matters is that the rocks and bricks are solid and well-fitting, and that they are not made of wood.
If you are buying cement for decorative purposes, though, then the situation is different. You can get custom-mixed cement at a reasonable price, but it will still take time to find one that suits all your requirements. Most people who use decorative concrete do not build their own houses; rather, they order it off-site from a company that specializes in such work. This can be worth it just for the convenience; if someone else does the work, there’s no need to worry about whether or not your taste matches what’s on offer in the local hardware store (which has very little to offer). But let’s assume that you want something more customized than this; let’s say that you want exactly what
The best cement is not a performance measure in a vacuum. It’s an evaluation of all the problems that need to be solved, how well those problems are being solved, and the quality of any resulting solutions. If you want good results from your solution, it helps to know what it is you are solving for.
The best cement is also not just the highest-performing cement on a given set of measures, although that’s important too. It’s also the most consistent with what we know about what it takes to get good results. For example, if you have a number of options on your “best” list, there may be some feature of one option that seems like it ought to count in its favor. If so, that might well push it ahead of another option that is more powerful or better suited to certain kinds of problem, but whose performance falls short on other counts.
The best cement is the one that goes up the fastest. It doesn’t matter if you have the best cement, it matters only that you go up the fastest. If you build a concrete building with the best cement, it may last longer than a building with inferior cement. But if it takes you two months to build your building and your competitor takes two weeks, your building will be obsolete just as quickly as his.
The best cement has high compressive strength, low water absorption and good tensile strength. These properties are necessary for building concrete structures or for making concrete castings.
High compressive strength means that the material can be used to create strong buildings. Low water absorption means that it doesn’t change when mixed with water, so it can be used to make concrete castings. Tensile strength means that it can hold a shape while being stressed, which is required for making castings.
The best cement must also have low shrinkage, high durability (which is measured by the time required for it to lose its original shape), high fluidity (which is measured by the rate of change in volume between room temperature and 100oC). It should also have few defects, such as cracks in the surface and pinholes in the matrix.
Today, answers to the question “What is a cement” are usually given by chemical engineers or architects. But a good answer should also include how much cement you need, how it can be mixed and spread, how long it will last, and so on. For example, are you going to use an expensive high-performance cement or a cheap one that doesn’t hold up well?
Cement is the most common building material. It’s used in the construction of buildings, roads, bridges and sidewalks. The word cement gets its name from the chemical compound that gives it its strength and durability — calcium silicate (also called Portland cement). When water is added to it at a high temperature and pressure, the chemical reaction creates what is known as “cement paste.” The paste is then mixed with other ingredients such as sand and gravel to create concrete.
In the early days of the Roman Empire, people in Rome and elsewhere used a mortar that was made from lime and water. But it cracked easily.
Then in the 3rd century BC, someone came up with a new recipe for cement. It hardened when exposed to heat, and it was stronger than the old one. It also had a taste.
The Romans were so impressed that they adopted it as their official cement. A few centuries later, everyone else adopted it, too.
Today we call this new cement “bitumen”.