Questions come from the Bluebook question bank.
To address the susceptibility of materials used in components of high-performance machinery, such as aircraft engines, to creep (deformation that is induced by persistent mechanical stress and that often occurs at elevated temperatures), materials researchers have developed silicon carbide (SiC) fibers for producing aerospace composites. Testing the thermomechanical properties of several commercially available SiC fibers, Ramakrishna T. Bhatt et al. found that in comparison with two polymer-derived SiC fibers, a nitrogen-treated SiC fiber exhibited a lower minimum creep rate, a measure of the rate at which a stress-exposed material deforms at a constant temperature and uniaxial load. The finding suggests that ______blank
Which choice most logically completes the text?