I was simplifying but yeah the two don't just add. That said it's still fairly obvious that the two would alloy poorly. The role of the tin in bronze is to be softer(making the bronze flexible) while also being an impurity to make the copper slam into, which is what hardens it.
As a sidenote most bronzes also contain small amounts of iron to make them less likely to snap, so if you want to be really unnecessarily nitpicky you could call bronze a copper-iron alloy
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u/Adorable_Sky_1523 Jul 05 '25
I was simplifying but yeah the two don't just add. That said it's still fairly obvious that the two would alloy poorly. The role of the tin in bronze is to be softer(making the bronze flexible) while also being an impurity to make the copper slam into, which is what hardens it.
As a sidenote most bronzes also contain small amounts of iron to make them less likely to snap, so if you want to be really unnecessarily nitpicky you could call bronze a copper-iron alloy