Recently I found out that glass is a liquid. How can this be? Glass is hard.?

Question

The molecules are packed close together like any other solid. Glass doesn't pour like a liquid.

Answer 1

Actually, glass is an amorphous solid. It is a solid that retains some characteristics of a liquid. In this case, a high viscosity. This is due to the fact that, although glass is organized enough to be considered a solid, the bonds can slip occasionally and allow the atoms to reconnect into different bonds. If you are from the U.S.A, there really is no building that has been around long enough to physically show you this. However, if you are from Europe (or Eastern Asia) take a look at the glass in the old (>1000 years) temples and cathedrals. You will notice that the glass has begun to pool at the bottom of the window. This makes the lower part of the window thicker than the upper part. Hence why the old stained glass cathedral windows are so brittle.

Answer 2

Its the way that the molecules in glass are packed. they can slip past each other very slowly, some people say that a liquid is someting that can be poured. If you take an old window pane of glass and it has been vertical for many a year you can notice that it is thicker at the bottom then at the top. this is the effect of the molecules being pulled down by gravity very slowly, in essence being poured.

Answer 3

Actually, it does "pour," just veeeeerrrrrryyyyy slowly because it's an extremely viscous liquid. If you take a perfectly uniform pane of glass and put it in a window frame, when you come back many years later, the pane will have thinned at the top and thickened at the bottom. Window panes that are old enough can actually have a gap between the top of the pane and the frame where all the glass has "poured" away over time.

Answer 4

Well, not quite...

Glass is formed when a mixture of molten silica (sand) + soda ash + lime is allowed to cool rapidly (and some impurities are added for various purposes). This causes the glass to have an unregular lattice. This unregular lattice makes the glass have an unstable physical state. You may think that this effect is unobservable in real life but hear this: I have encountered some glasses that actually bend quite a bit!! At ROOM temperature!! Like Silly-putty!! And I think that this observation does vindicate your observations.

For more, as usual, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass

Answer 5

actually the reason they thought glass was a liquid was that the windows in churches were thicker at the bottom than at the top

BUT, this has been proven incorrect, glass is a solid, but you will still see references in textbooks and teachers still say its a liquid but recents scientific proof says its solid, I wish I could find the article I read about this sorry

Answer 6

glass does flow. It is very viscous at room temperature. But if heated, it will turn into a syrupy fluid. That's how glass blowers make things.

An example of glass running can be found in very old houses. The windows in these houses often look wavy. This is because they have deformed over the years.

Answer 7

Glass is hard, yes, but it does pour. Veeeeeeeery slowly, but it does. Glass is an amorphous solid, which means that it not's quite a solid, hard as it is. Asphalt is amorphous too, and it is definitely hard if you fall on it. If you look at very old panes of glass, you will see that they are thicker on the bottom than on the top.

Answer 8

Firstly, it should be noted that glass is formed when silicon dioxide (SiO2), or silica, is heated to its melting point of approximately 1710 degrees cel. This added energy allows the molecules to overcome the intermolecular forces and rearrange themselves. As they cool to a sloid, they are in no way close to the initial "ground state" energy they previously had (ie. before melting). This added energy (although quite minute, relatively speaking) is enough to give it fluid dynamic properties.

Answer 9

i recall reading in school textbook that glass is actually plasma state
not really liquid nor solid

Answer 10

yeah, OK. remember when they were starting all of those oil fires in Iraq and they couldn't get to the fire because of the glass. that is liquid.