Top 5 Amazing Glass Facts And Feats

That office window has more strangeness

 and ability than most people give it credit for. But give ordinary glass to Shaolin monks and scientists, and things get interesting.

bizarre to the extreme.

Glass is not as simple or as weak as it appears, from perplexing performance feats to bizarre alloys.

seems. Research can now solve old mysteries and develop cutting-edge technology, but

The most incredible thing about experimentally glass is its ability to heal itself or even outlive humans.

culture.

Crater s Glass Trail Missing-10

A massive meteor smashed into Earth about 800,000 years ago. The rock was 20 kilometres (12 miles) wide and ejected glassy debris into the atmosphere following the impact.

This fallout rained glass across a 22,500-square-kilometer area (8,700 mi ). The crater has never been discovered, despite its massive glass footprint across Australia and Asia.

Glass beads were discovered in greater numbers in Antarctica in 2018. They were quickly identified as part of the mysterious meteor s debris, despite their size being the width of a human hair. Their chemical composition, called microtektites, piqued the scientists interest.

The beads low sodium and potassium levels indicated that they were most likely on the crater s outskirts. Under extreme temperatures, sodium and potassium leach out, and hot debris spreads further away from the impact.

When Antarctic microtektites were compared to Australian microtektites, the latter had higher levels of sodium and potassium and, thus, were theoretically closer to the crater.

Researchers expect to find the crater somewhere in Vietnam if they follow this formula of going from hot to cool. If the theory is correct, the Antarctic beads travelled a staggering 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi).

At other times, it seemed like the needle just cracked the glass and popped the balloon

with small shards released on the other side. Both remain an incredible feat.

The answer boils down to how glass breaks at a molecular level. Glass is tough. Its

molecules are linked in a network that shares (and thus weakens) any pressure against it.

9-The Shaolin Needle Trick

Shaolin monks are well-known for their agile martial arts displays. However, one man recently did something extremely unusual. Feng Fei threw a needle through a pane of glass without breaking it. The monk threw the needle so hard that it popped a balloon on the other side. To all intents and purposes, it should have broken the entire pane. When the superfast trick was slowed down, it appeared as if the needle s point pierced the glass with some throws. At times, it appeared as if the needle simply cracked the glass and popped the balloon, releasing small shards on the other side. Both feats are still incredible. The answer is based on how glass breaks at the molecular level.

Glass is a hard substance. Its molecules are linked in a network that shares (and thus weakens) any pressure applied to it. When you press your fingertip against a window pane, the entire window will resist you. Cracks form when molecular bonds fail and pressure is forced to follow the crack to its end. A deep crack will form if a needle is thrown with enough accuracy and muscle to avoid bending. Once that is accomplished, there will be little resistance to prevent the needle from passing through.

8-Glass Wants To Be A Crystal

Scientists are unsure what type of matter glass is. Even if it appears to be so, a sheet of glass is not solid. Surprisingly, it can behave as both a liquid and a solid at the same time. Glass atoms are caught in the same way that gel atoms are—slow-moving atoms.

In 2008, a breakthrough occurred when researchers focused on the pattern formed by glass atoms as they cooled. They formed icosahedrons, which resemble 3-D pentagons. Because pentagons cannot be arranged in an orderly manner, the glass atoms appeared as a random jumble.

The same study discovered that glass tries its hardest to be a crystal. However, for this to happen, molecules must arrange themselves in a highly regular pattern.

The 3-D pentagons prevent this from happening. In other words, glass is neither solid nor liquid, has gel-like properties, and is a crystal in the process of developing.

7-A Radioactive Clue to the Moon s Birth

Scientists are still debating how our Moon came to be. Glass left over from the first atomic explosion can support the theory that the Moon formed as a result of a collision between Earth and a planet-sized body about 4.5 billion years ago. In 2017, researchers discovered glass forged by the 1945 nuclear test in New Mexico. It was green and radioactive and was known as trinitite. The first solid clue to the Moon s formation was discovered by measuring the different chemical compositions in the glass. The trinitite closest to the explosion zone was devoid of volatile elements, including zinc. Under extreme heat, such elements vaporise, similar to how planets form.

This was all theory up until now. Scientists now have their first physical evidence after the nuke sucked out the elements. Trinitite and lunar material are similar enough in their lack of water and volatile elements to demonstrate that they react to high temperatures in the same way whether on Earth or in space.

6-Prince Rupert’s Exploding Glass

They have the appearance of teardrops or tadpoles. However, Prince Rupert's drops combine two polar opposites into a single shape with a hair-trigger fragility and a strength that can withstand a hammer. The unusual drops form when molten glass is dripped into ice water. In the 1600s, Prince Rupert of Bavaria attempted to solve the mystery. The glass refused to break when the teardrop-shaped bead's head was hammered on an anvil. However, the moment the thin tail was snapped off, the entire drop, head and all, exploded into a puff of powder. Rupert's uncle, King Charles II, tasked the Royal Society with discovering the mystery, but they came up empty-handed.In 1994, high-speed photographs showed that a broken tail sent cracks barreling toward the head at over 6,400 kilometers per hour (4,000 mph). In addition, scientists discovered that cooling was behind the drops’ strange qualities.When molten glass hit the cold water, the outside cooled rapidly. The inside solidified much more slowly, which created a surface tension tight enough to withstand a beating. However, on the inside, that same tension bombs the drop at the first hairline crack.

Glass as a Radioactive Storage Medium-5

One of the most serious issues with hazardous materials is the storage of waste, of which there is an unfathomable amount on a global scale. Containers frequently leak, contaminating the ground, water sources, and even people. The US Department of Energy discovered a novel way to store radioactive waste as glass in 2018. Tanks of waste are kept underground at Hanford, a former weapons factory. For a test run of the theoretically spill-proof idea, researchers chose low-activity radioactive trash. The liquid waste was mixed with glassmaking ingredients before being slowly injected into a melter.

After 20 hours, the 11 litres (3 gal) of waste was completely vitrified. This first attempt was a huge success, and radioactive material was safely encased within glass. A full-fledged programme will now be launched to address the millions of gallons of toxic tanks that still exist beneath Hanford.