Title: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: joeactor on February 11, 2011, 03:37:12 PM
Post by: joeactor on February 11, 2011, 03:37:12 PM
http://io9.com/#!5757404/awesome-discov ... s-too-cold (http://io9.com/#!5757404/awesome-discovery-of-the-week-glass-melts-when-it-gets-too-cold)
Wow. Just. Wow.
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.
Title: Re: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: Tank on February 11, 2011, 03:40:02 PM
Post by: Tank on February 11, 2011, 03:40:02 PM
Linky not worky :upset:
Title: Re: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: joeactor on February 11, 2011, 03:43:13 PM
Post by: joeactor on February 11, 2011, 03:43:13 PM
Quote from: "Tank"Linky not worky
hmmmm... ok - here are two more, with more info too:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/ ... s-melting/ (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/quantum-glass-melting/)
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v7/ ... s1865.html (http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v7/n2/full/nphys1865.html)
Title: Re: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: Tank on February 11, 2011, 03:52:55 PM
Post by: Tank on February 11, 2011, 03:52:55 PM
Glass is a rather odd solid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Glas ... led_liquid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Glass_versus_supercooled_liquid)
Title: Re: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: KDbeads on February 11, 2011, 06:59:59 PM
Post by: KDbeads on February 11, 2011, 06:59:59 PM
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
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.
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
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.
Title: Re: Glass Melts... when it gets cold?
Post by: xSilverPhinx on March 14, 2011, 08:53:27 AM
Post by: xSilverPhinx on March 14, 2011, 08:53:27 AM
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 
If you look up PBS's documentary on YouTube called "Absolute zero" it shows the experiment.
If you look up PBS's documentary on YouTube called "Absolute zero" it shows the experiment.