For a long time many people The question of whether glass is solid or liquid; It is not surprising that there is a group who believe that church glassworks, particularly those built during the medieval period in Europe, are ‘dissolving’ over the years. The group claims: Medieval stained glass tends to be ‘thicker’ at the bottom due to the natural flow of the liquid glass.

In other words, they explain that glass had a stable shape in medieval times, but because it was a liquid substance, it began to flow towards one end over the decades. basically it will be in solid format because it is a supercooled liquid. But is this really true? After all, is glass a liquid or a solid?

To solve this riddle, TecMundo gathered information from experts and scientists in this field. Check out!

Liquid or solid? Both!

First of all, it is necessary to understand that glass is not just something found in the windows of your house or car, because there are many other materials belonging to the same family. The quickest answer is that the material is neither liquid nor solid, but has some properties of both.

Scientists claim that Glass is actually a type of amorphous solid that lies between two states of matter.. However, the features associated with the liquid form are not linked to medieval European glassware; because the atoms in the glass move too slowly to make any changes visible.

“Solids are highly organized structures. They contain crystals like sugar and salt, where millions of atoms are arranged in a row. Liquids and glasses do not have this order. Amorphous means it does not have this long-term rule. [Com um] “It’s solid; if you grab it, it keeps its shape,” said Mark Ediger, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

Experts point out that despite the supposedly strange features of the windows of European churches, there are also old windows that do not show this ‘change’. According to Robert Brill, ancient glass researcher at the Corning Museum of Glass, Egyptian stained glass is older and does not show the melting mentioned above.

“It is neither a true liquid nor a true solid; it has the properties of both, but is a distinctively distinct state of matter. The technical definition is that glass is a non-crystalline, non-equilibrium state of matter that is solid on a solid surface. The time scale is short, but it continually relaxes toward the liquid state,” Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) materials scientist John Mauro said in a message posted to the website Live Science.

solid than liquid

Mauro explains that there are different types of glass: It is the most common soda-lime, consisting of sand, limestone and sodium carbonate, melting at about 1,500 degrees Celsius. But there is also the famous Gorilla Glass, which is used to equip the screens of different smartphones, or Pyrex, which is used in recipes and is more heat resistant.

Although there are chemical differences in the production of different types, glass structures have many common features. What makes a material solid is that its atoms are fixed in a single position; However, in liquids, atoms are dispersed and can rearrange themselves. Glass, an amorphous material, is solid most of the time, but can become liquid when it reaches certain temperatures..

In an interview with the website Live ScienceJohn Parker, a materials scientist at the Glass Research Center at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He said he would describe glass as a type of hard solid. In fact, he explains, the reason medieval stained glass windows have this appearance is because professionals at the time could not produce glass of the same thickness.

Did you like the content? Stay up to date with more chemistry and physics curiosities on TecMundo and, if you wish, take the opportunity to find out what the eureka moment of ‘quantum superchemistry’ is.

Source: Tec Mundo

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I'm Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I've written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.

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