<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In materials science, ductility is a solid material's ability to deform under tensile stress; this is often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire . Malleability, a similar property, is a material's ability to deform under compressive stress; this is often characterized by the material's ability to form a thin sheet by hammering or rolling . Both of these mechanical properties are aspects of plasticity, the extent to which a solid material can be plastically deformed without fracture . Also, these material properties are dependent on temperature and pressure (investigated by Percy Williams Bridgman as part of his Nobel Prize - winning work on high pressures). </P> <P> Ductility and malleability are not always coextensive--for instance, while gold has high ductility and malleability, lead has low ductility but high malleability . The word ductility is sometimes used to encompass both types of plasticity . </P>

Two metals which are most malleable and ductile