why would a glass baking dish explode?

Question

literally, nothing caused the glass dish to bust (well at least not that we know of) but it did, in pieces.

-we had it stored inside the oven when not in use, have been for over a year. (its a gas oven)
-the oven was turned off, in fact, not even used for a couple of days.

out of no where we heard a crashing noise. my sis ran to the windows, and ran to the stove. sure enough, glass all inside the oven. do you think the gas in the oven did it? but i dont get it...the bakeware is meant to be inside the oven cooking your food, why would it just burst for no reason?

and plz no stupid remarks like, the oven is haunted or anything. im looking for scientific reasoning, or if this ever happen to anyone?

thank you

we have a smaller dish im assuming they are from the same company... "Anchor Hocking Company"

Answer 1

this happened to me , what actually happens is that even tho you do not use the oven , you do use the stove top and there is some amount of heat that is trapped inside the oven section that comes from the stove top plates when you use the stove top .
this heat must have accumulated inside the oven and it caused the glass dish to explode , I also wondered why the dish would explode when it is supposed to be a glass baking dish that is heat resistant , but i guess nothing lasts forever >>>
the glass dish i had was also abt 1 yr old
just leave your dish in the cabinet , not in the oven >> i have mine
now for over 3 yrs since the last dish that exploded

Answer 2

I have ha it happen a couple times and each of my daughters a couple times. Theirs did have to do with hot and cold. Glass is a very poor conductor of heat and one end can become hot(near the pilot light) and the other end still cold. It tries to expand but breaks because the heat was not conducted from one end to the other. In the cupboard I assume it was either a sudden shift in weight or a sudden hit by something else falling.
It could have gotten a crack or chip the last time it was used and the stress just picked that time to relieve itself.

Answer 3

Was it a Duralex? If so, I have a link for you: http://www.patricktaylor.com/12

Look for the posting dated: July 27th, 2006 at 03:07

Quoting from there: "Compressive surface stresses are created in the manufacture of toughened glass. They are the reason for its increased strength, but a small surface chip or scratch can weaken the surface layer, occasionally causing the glass to shatter, sometimes well after the original damage occurred and for no apparent reason.

Despite the (rare) instances of a glass 'exploding', toughened glass is regarded as safer than annealed glass because when it is made to shatter, it forms those small blunt pellets (like a shattered car windscreen) instead of the sharp, jagged shards normally associated with broken glass. "

Answer 4

Could be due to vibration and ofcourse rapid temperature change.

Answer 5

hot and cold reacting.