Is there any way to tell a quartz sphere from a glass sphere?

Answer 1

If your sphere is bright and clear without any marks at all the chances are 99.9% it is glass. If you can spot a tiny gas bubble anywhere it IS glass. A good way to tell glass from a real quartz ball is to take something made of glass glass (an empty Coke bottle is fine) and stand it by your sphere for 10 or 15 minutes to let them both reach room temperature. Touch each with the tip of your tongue, if they both feel the same your sphere is glass, if the sphere feels much colder it is quartz as quartz transmits heat much faster than glass. You can use this test on most cut stones to detect glass substitutes but lab made stones react as if they were natural so be careful.

Answer 2

An easy way to tell the difference is that quartz will scratch glass and glass cannot scratch it. It's hardness is a 7 on the Mohs scale whereas glass only has a hardness of 6.5.

Answer 3

What is sold in the departmental store and claim to be crystal sphere things keep me in doubt as well, whether the sphere is as what they claim to be?
A crystal is a mixture of lead and glass in high temperature.
There is no quartz that is sold in sphere as their commercial value is much higher that selling it in sphere.
There is a way that we can observe the reflection of the material known as angle C.
Another is to scratch a tiny sample from the sphere and used lab equipment to define the element of the sample brought in. If it is a crystal, your report should reflect that there is silicone and lead.

Answer 4

Yes, if it has a sphere form then it is glass (or something else). Quartz has a characteristic six-sided shape, and never forms as a sphere.

Answer 5

Usually if it appears perfect with no cracks or other inclusions and has a greenish hue then its probably glass. Quartz will tend to have a whitish hue to it.