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Could you create a glass shape as strong as the drop, but without the easy to break tail?
by xupybd 10y ago
Could you create a glass shape as strong as the drop, but without the easy to break tail?
- andrewjrhill 10y agoTake a whole bunch of them and stick the tails in the center, to form an unbreakable sphere.
- lowtolerance 10y agoKind of like a Rat King of Prince Rupert drops.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoYou'd want a hollow centre otherwise compressive forces would pass through and initiate the collapse of the tails.
- daemin 10y agoI guess you could do it in space as long as you could have a sphere of molten glass floating, then immediately surround it with water from all sides. My reasoning is that the tail is formed because the molten glass is dropped into the water, hence forming the tail. So if you could have a sphere and cool it down from all sides simultaneously then it should form a sphere based version. Of course there's also a chance of explosion.
- beaconstudios 10y agobut is the internal tension in the head not partially a result of the combination of rapid cooling and rapid deceleration from water resistance? Dousing a molten glass bead in space would only produce one of these two effects.
- vorotato 10y agoIf you could have the tail inside of the drop like a jellyfish.
- durkie 10y agoI believe this is somewhat how gorilla glass works, except by s different process called ion exchange, where large ions are forced in to the glass in place of smaller ones at high temperature, causing the glass matrix to have to compress to accommodate them once cooled and thus creating residual compressive stresses.