why would glas shatter on its own without droping? i put it in the oven then like 1 hr later i put it on thi?

Question

the sink without wetting it and shattered

Thank you guys for the excellent answers

Answer 1

This is probably due to uneven heating of the glass.

Most materials (glass being one) expand when heated and contract when cooled. Placing the room-temperature glass into an oven allows for even heating throughout the glass, thus all the glass expands evenly.

Now, taking the glass out of the oven and placing it on the sink surface cools the bottom of the glass faster than the top of the glass, as the thermal conductivity of your sink is higher than that of the air (take your hand, and place it on the sink surface... your hand will feel cooler, even though the air temperature and sink temperature are most likely the same). To reword this, the sink will take the heat away faster than the air will.

The uneven heating now will cause stress in the glass (due to some parts--the cooler part--contracting), and since glass is brittle, it shatters.

Answer 2

Most people only think of glass breaking like this when water is involved. However, as you have seen, any temperature changes can affect glass and create shattering. It certainly has to do with uneven temperature heating or cooling. We just see it so much more with water because water poured on one side can change the temperature so much quicker than air. Glass made for bakeware is specifically made to resist this type of breakage, but it can still occur.
Perhaps in your case, the sink acted link a heat sink (no pun intended) and the contraction around the base broke the glass.

Answer 3

The sink was cold and it shattered due to the sudden change of temperature. You should have placed it on a wooden board or a tea towel.

You should also use perpex. You are not supposed to use normal glass in an oven.

Answer 4

Are you sure it was oven-safe glass?

Thermal expansion can overstress the crystalline structure of glass, making it very weak. From what you describe, I think something like that happened with this dish -- it wasn't the thermal change of putting it in the sink, but the mechanical stress. Almost anything probably would have shattered it at that point.

Answer 5

Clearly thermal stress broke your glass item.

Heat transfer is effected by radiation, convection, and conduction. What logically happened in your case is that the conduction cooling of the glass side touching the sink was so much more rapid than the air (convection) cooling of the other side of glass that the shear limits of the glass was exceeded. Glass has great tensile and compressive strength, but doesn't have much to resist shear forces.

Answer 6

if the oven was turned up past 360 the heat likely shattered it, that's why broiler pans are made out of metal.

Answer 7

Dynamic cooling at an uneven rate. ... or the mass of glass had uneven rates of heat exchange causing the structure to break away from itself violently. It tore itself apart.