Glass           03/28/16

 

One of the most fascinating physical substances known to humanity is one that is probably seen my the majority of the world everyday. This material is known as glass, and we shall examine what makes it so special.

 

Glass begins it’s life in the form of sand. If one were to raise the temperature of sand to 1700 Centigrades, then it melts and obtains a peculiar internal structure that results in it becoming what material scientists like to refer to as an Amorphous solid. The manufacturing process for glass often begins with such sand being mixed with recycled products and soda ash and limestone in a massive furnace. The soda lowers the amount of energy needed to melt the sand, but an unfortunate side-effect is that the glass that is produced through such means is often of very poor quality, so limestone is often added to prevent this from happening. The resultant glass is termed Soda-lime-silica glass in honor of all of the materials that went into it

 

Glass is so popular because it has a sublime domain of applications. Glass is chemically inert, so it will react with very little substances making it a prime candidate for use as a material holder such as in glasses Glass is transparent so it is easy to see through and glass is also fairly resistant to thermal expansion so one does not have to worry too much about glass breaking or swelling due to a heat wave. In addition, glass is a highly recyclable material

 

Glass is truly a most fascinating material. Imagine what human civilization would be like if glass lost one of it’s useful facets, such as chemical inertness or transparentness, then all of society would be simply turned upside down! I want you to ponder how glass and engineering make our world possible