Exploding Glass: Prince Rupert’s Drop

As anyone who has worked with glass knows, the material is fascinating. Glass is fragile, yet it can be extraordinarily strong. This is a seeming contradiction, but one that makes sense if you start to understand what makes glass crack.

Via Phil at Bad Astronomy, a truly awesome video on Prince Rupert’s Drop, a simple construct of glass that exhibits the strength and weakness of glass in a very visual way.

Science is cool!

Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

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