Cracking may refer to: * Cracking, the formation of a

fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

or partial fracture in a solid material studied as

fracture mechanics Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics t ...

** Performing a

sternotomy Median sternotomy is a type of surgical procedure in which a vertical inline Surgical incision, incision is made along the Human sternum, sternum, after which the sternum itself is divided using a sternal saw. This procedure provides access to the ...

Fluid catalytic cracking Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is the conversion process used in petroleum refineries to convert the high-boiling point, high-molecular weight hydrocarbon fractions of petroleum (crude oils) into gasoline, olefinic gases, and other petroleum prod ...

, a catalytic process widely used in oil refineries for cracking large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller molecules *

Cracking (chemistry) In petrochemistry, petroleum geology and organic chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking o ...

, the decomposition of complex organic molecules into smaller ones * Cracking joints, the practice of manipulating one's bone joints to make a sharp sound * Cracking codes, see

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...

* Whip cracking * Safe cracking * ''Crackin, band featuring

Lester Abrams Lester Abrams (born 1945) is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and m ...

* Packing and cracking, a method of creating voting districts to give a political party an advantage In computing: * Another name for security hacking; the practice of defeating computer security. *

Password cracking In cryptanalysis and computer security, password cracking is the process of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system in scrambled form. A common approach (brute-force attack) is to repeatedly try ...

, the process of discovering the plaintext of an encrypted computer password. * Software cracking, the defeating of software copy protection.

See also