In a large context, this means that the critical fracture energy when both of the Elastic Energy and Surface Energy are coupled together gets lower as the angles get larger. If the critical fracture energy of a material is weaker, it means that it takes less energy to initiate and propagate a crack in the material. This makes the material more prone to cracking and more vulnerable to failure under external loads. A material with a weaker critical fracture energy is therefore generally considered to be weaker in terms of its resistance to fracture.