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This is not such a great article. It's true that the meme "glass is a liquid" is tiresome and incorrect, and it is true that glass doesn't flow at usual tempera
by 4ad 12y ago
This is not such a great article. It's true that the meme "glass is a liquid" is tiresome and incorrect, and it is true that glass doesn't flow at usual temperatures, but glass is very special and interesting because it doesn't undergo a state transition from liquid to solid state. So in a very specific technical sense, glass can be considered liquid, but there are many definitions of liquid and solids and this one doesn't align with people's naive definition.
I hoped would article would touch these special properties of glass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Formation_from_a_supercooled_liquid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Formation_from_a_supercoo...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_transition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_transition
- Bognar 12y agoMore generally, materials that don't have definite liquid-solid transitions and don't have long-range crystal structure are called amorphous solids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_solid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_solid
- whoopdedo 12y agoI was about to say something like this in response to the parent comment. Instead of saying "glass panes are actually more like a very thick liquid than it is a solid" perhaps we should be saying "molten glass is more like a very flexible solid than it is a liquid."