Why is glass scientifically classed as a liquid?

Answer 1

Not quite liquid.

Glass is considered an amorphous solid which means it has not large ordered structure. Over time, glass will change shape because there is no strong crystalline structure

Answer 2

One common misconception is that glass is a super-cooled liquid of practically infinite viscosity at room temperature and as such flows, though very slowly, similar to pitch. Glass is generally treated as an amorphous solid rather than a liquid, though different views can be justified since characterizing glass as either 'solid' or 'liquid' is not an entirely straightforward matter [1]. However, the notion that glass flows to an appreciable extent over extended periods of time is not supported by empirical evidence or theoretical analysis.

A myth does exist that glass rods and tubes can bend under their own weight over time. To check it, in the 1920s, Robert John Rayleigh, son of the nobel prize winner John William Rayleigh, conducted an experiment on a 1 meter (39 in) long, 5 millimetre (~3/16 in) thick glass rod, which was supported horizontally on two pins with a 300 gram (0.66 lb) weight in the middle. Apart from the initial bending of 28 millimetre (1.1 in), the position of the weight didn't change until the end of the experiment, which lasted for 7 years. At the same time, another man, a worker of General Electric named K. D. Spenser, conducted a similar experiment independently. Two months after Rayleigh, he published his own results which also disproved the myth. Spenser suggested that the myth was composed before the 1920s, when the tubes were made by hand, and naturally some of them were curved to begin with. Over time the straight tubes were taken away, and only the curved ones remained. Some people probably thought it was the glass flowing.

Answer 3

Glass will NOT drip this is a misunderstanding of the way that ancient stained glass windows were made (the glass was deliberately made thicker at the bottom than the top and this has been interpreted as the glass having flowed down)

The definition of a solid is a material which posseses both short and long range order-solids can be grown as crystals in which knowing the structure at small distances you can predict the structure at any finite distance.

Liquids possess short range order but no long range order-with knowledge of the structure at small distances gives no indication of the long range structure

Many crystalline solids can be made to be glasses-to do so melt the material and cool it rapidly so as to prevent crystallisation and the liquid structure is trapped in the glass, sugar and silicon dioxide being two examples.

Answer 4

Glass is not a liquid, and it does not flow. Both Rayleigh and Spencer proved that in the 1920's with 7 year experiments of glass rods holding weights in which no bending took place. The only way to get it to 'flow' is heating; depending upon additives it becomes 'liquid' at 1 to 2 thousand degrees.. Every element has a melting point, a tensil strength, a 'slow cooled' state (quartz) and a 'supercooled' state ('glass'), yet you wouldnot consider calling steel a liquid, or polyvinyl chloride. Fiber optic cable is a very unique form of glass and, although flexible as hair, has 0 resistivity to light frequencies and with special additives can even amplify the light it carries,, blah,blah,blah

Answer 5

It isn't really classified as a liquid. It's called "amorphous" or "vitreous". The difference between a glass and a crystalline solid is that the latter has "long range order" (i.e. its crystal structure), whereas a glass is said to have only "short range order". It's sort of like a liquid where a snapshot of the liquid's structure has been frozen in, but that's not quite right either.

Answer 6

Glass has a very high viscosity which means it is a liquid, but it's flow is very very slow. It takes several years for any part of it to shift and usually sags towards the earth due to the pull of gravity. Water for example has a very low viscosity and flows quickly. Honey has a higher viscosity and flows a lot slower. Glass has a very very high viscosity and flows so slowly, that you probably wouldn't even notice in your life span.

Answer 7

Even tho glass looks solid, it isn't. It continues in motion, that's
why old mirrors and windows can be thicker at the bottom, as
gravity works on the glass molecules.

Answer 8

It is a liquid...just a very, very, very slow moving one. if you watch a bottle with a bumble in it for 10 years the bubble will move up a little. in a couple thousand years it will have become a puddle.

Answer 9

Given time glass will "drip" as it is not fully solid.

Answer 10

because given enough time, loong long time, it does 'drip' toward the earth.