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if there were no need for 'engineers from the quantum plenum' then we should not have any unanswered scientific questions.

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Glass Melts... when it gets cold?

Started by joeactor, February 11, 2011, 03:37:12 PM

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joeactor

http://io9.com/#!5757404/awesome-discov ... s-too-cold

QuoteMost of the time, not many interesting things happen once a substance gets below the temperature required for solification. Its atoms are bound to one another, and without the indroduction of some kind of energy, they'll stay that way. Glass, it turns out, is the exception. Once it gets close to absolute zero, it melts again.

QuoteThe wild card turned out to be quantum mechanics. Once the atoms of glass became still enough, they stopped acting like particles and instead acted like waves. The wave-like atoms now were able to flow, moving through spaces too small for particles to get through. This motion, and this ability to fit through small spaces, causes ultra-cold glass to melt into a liquid.

Wow.  Just.  Wow.

Tank

#1
Linky not worky  :upset:
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

joeactor


Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

KDbeads

Glass is an amorphous solid.  Not a true solid like everyone tends to think though it doesn't flow.
With all it's weird true and freaky thermal and phase properties like being able to be drawn into a flexible wire (fiber optics anyone?) or crystallizing almost instantly if you toss one tiny crystal into a massive glass vat that has started cooling, which is really awesome to watch ... this is nothing surprising....  Ask any of us who have studied in depth  :D
Actually, I'm thinking this was being studied while I was in school come to think about it, have to ask hubby.  He got to take experimental glass/ceramics under one of the more hyper professors that was into everything researchable.  I got the older guy who was not quite as hyper.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. - Douglas Adams

xSilverPhinx

Liquid helium does the same thing, it becomes a liquid with absolutly no viscosity and seeps through unbroken glass. Looks like a really cool effect  :crazy:

If you look up PBS's documentary on YouTube called "Absolute zero" it shows the experiment.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey