![]() ![]() But the liquidlike structure of glass means that over a long enough period of time, glass undergoes a process called relaxation. On short timescales, glass behaves much like a solid. It is the atomically disordered structure that defines glass. If this liquid cools down fast enough, instead of solidifying into an organized, crystalline structure like most solids, the mixture solidifies while maintaining the disordered structure. In this state, the minerals are freely flowing in the liquid and move in a disordered way. The first step to make glass requires heating up a mixture of minerals β often soda ash, limestone and quartz sand β until they melt into a liquid at around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,480 Celsius). The best way to understand glass is to understand how it is made. As two materials scientists who study glass, we are constantly trying to improve our understanding of this unique material and discover new ways to use glass in the future. ![]() But the reality is much more interesting β glass does not fit neatly into either of those categories and is in many ways a state of matter all its own. Itβs not uncommon to hear the oft-repeated factoid that glass is actually a liquid, not a solid. Humankind has been using glass in some fashion for millennia, and researchers are still finding new uses for it today. These properties of glass are why people use it to make everything from smartphone screens and fiber-optic cables to vials that hold vaccines. Glass is a material of many faces: It is both ancient and modern, strong yet delicate, and able to adopt almost any shape or color. ![]() The following article, written by John Mauro, Penn State and Katelyn Kirchner, Penn State originally appeared on The Conversation and is published here with permission: ![]()
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