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Fact or Fiction?: Glass Is a (Supercooled) Liquid »

Posted by: Ousama 1 year, 6 months ago

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In medieval European cathedrals, the glass sometimes looks odd. Some panes are thicker at the bottom than they are at the top. The seemingly solid glass appears to have melted. This is evidence, say tour guides, Internet rumors and even high school chemistry teachers, that glass is actually a liquid.

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Comments So Far: 14

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IcCaRus1 year, 6 months ago

very interesting. good find Ousama
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aceofspades11 year, 6 months ago

where are all the pseudo-scientists that usually comment on a scientific atricle? How come some creationist fanatic hasn't said that the glass is thicker at the bottom due to the pull of Satan trying to suck religious symbols into hell?
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  LABELDUDE1 year, 6 months ago
  
  Because it's simply obvious that Satan is responsible. Satan is causing the pulling. In fact, when you were a pimple faced teen-ager it was SATAN that caused you to involve yourself in all that PULLING. heh, heh...
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    LABELDUDE1 year, 6 months ago
    
    Thanks 99, I didn't realize the TRAP on the back of my Long John's had dropped open.
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    LABELDUDE1 year, 6 months ago
    
    Oops, got some "Negative" votes here. Looks like "BM" doesn't like this "Debil" talk.
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Mtilley1 year, 6 months ago

Glass panes in many old buildings are thicker at the bottom because people couldn't make glass of an even thickness a few hundred years ago. So some parts of the pane were thicker than others. They put the thick part on the bottom.
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TheTruthIsHere1 year, 6 months ago

It's very obvious why they are this way....the glassmakers were artisans and wanted everything to be right....and they probably thought that by putting the thicker glass at the bottom, the glass panels would be sturdier....
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  earthlingerer1 year, 6 months ago
  
  The article reads: "A mathematical model shows it would take longer than the universe has existed for room temperature cathedral glass to rearrange itself to appear melted."
  These cathedrals are many hundreds of years old, and your saying that these much newer pieces of glass have in fact flowed faster than these old, less homogenous mixtures?
  We're talking BILLIONS of years, just to "appear" melted, and your opinion - that's all it is, says you can measure it.
  Maybe its really sixty years of windex residue.
  
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LABELDUDE1 year, 6 months ago

O.K., now there are only maybe three things that I learned in High School that haven't been debunked.
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Amazing11 year, 6 months ago

So how long will it take until my martini glass is a round disk next to my mouse?
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BarryM1 year, 6 months ago

Glass takes the form that it is cast in and stays that way until destroyed or recycled like all metals,, older glass is another story the technolagy was not as good as it is today.
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  earthlingerer1 year, 6 months ago
  
  As someone who has studied soft glass work, as well as scientific glassblowing, I whole heartedly concur with your statement.
  But like the story said, not even ancient egyptian vessels have changed, nor have bottles under the sea at pressures of several atmospheres, over more than three thousand plus years.
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Mike4401 year, 6 months ago

good point. The Heavy side on the bottom is the common sense way to install the glass. Remember Chesterton's response to a learned skeptic who declaimed that the spires on a church pointed in the manner they did as an echo of ancient Phallic worship. Who which GKC responded, "of course, otherwise the church would have been built the other way," i.e. with the pointed end as the foundation. Chesterton then had a hearty laugh.
A common problem with Science education is the use or mis-use of examples for the non-tec that some are just close enough to be temptimg but just wrong enough to be... wrong.

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  LABELDUDE1 year, 6 months ago
  
  Don't neglect to send that one in to Saturday Night Live.
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