this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 94 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's the cooling of silica (really, any material) that makes it a glass, and even then, transparency in the visual wavelength is not automatically certain.

[–] teft 74 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Case in point, obsidian.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 10 months ago

Good example. Obsidian is apparently 70% silica. Iron is apparently what makes it black in color. If it's thin enough, it is translucent.

If you cool pure silica slowly enough, with impurities to cause seeding, you will get tons of crystals, not a single glass, that won't be transparent.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

3090 degrees is above its boiling point (which is 2950 degrees).

So it doesn't become "clear", it literally vaporises.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

You are talking Celsius while the meme is likely referring to F (you can tell because Obama)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

When will the US finally use the metric system 😮‍💨

Anti Commercial AI thingyCC BY-NC-SA 4.0

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

This ambiguity is what I had in mind when I read "let me be clear". Though now I get it.

[–] Noodle07 35 points 10 months ago

Glassblowers: thanks Obama

[–] _sideffect 21 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I wonder how they figured that out

Did molten lava touch sand and then they were like 😳

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Maybe tektites? Natural glass formed when ~~lightning~~ meteorites strike~~s~~ sand. I only remember the name because they share it with the jumpy spiders from Zelda

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

When lightning strikes sand it creates fulgerites.

Tektites are formed when meteorites strike.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am sorry for insulting your people

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Right. Now don't do it again!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Hi! You included a link which is really difficult for mobile users to tap. Here is a much longer and more tappable link.

I am not a bot, and this action was performed manually. I recall that there was a bot for this on Reddit. Does an equivalent exist on Lemmy yet?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Oh look there's a whole Wikipedia page on it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_glass

Possibly an accidental byproduct of metal working

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I thought you were talking about tektites for a second.

[–] _sideffect 1 points 10 months ago

Ha, nice reference

[–] Hule 1 points 10 months ago

Jules Verne wrote about this in one of his novels. The mysterious island, iirc.

[–] jaybone 5 points 10 months ago

It’s like minecraft.

[–] Olhonestjim 3 points 10 months ago

If you spent your days cooking with fire, and your nights watching it and warming yourself, you'd definitely start tossing anything you could find into it just to see what would happen. People did this every day and night for eons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I think people just experimented a lot. Try enough random things, you're bound to come across cool chemistry every once in a while. If they figured out how to make really hot fire, that opens the path to "let's try making various things really hot to see what happens".

Of course, I know basically nothing about [pre]history or human development so I could be way off

[–] unreasonabro 14 points 10 months ago

well this is my favorite post.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

first it becomes glowy orange tho

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Oozy orange blob is the Trump phase.

[–] robocall 1 points 10 months ago

More like an orangey white like an incandescent bulb, maybe.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago

how about no