Sounds like a hybrid between glass and "transparent aluminium".
Aye, that's the ticket, laddie!
For those downvoting this, please go watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
11–20 of 75 posts
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#12Sounds like a hybrid between glass and "transparent aluminium".
Sapphire crystal [1] is something like transparent aluminum rust. Alumina [2] is too, I think. They might be the same thing, I'm not a chemist.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxide
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#13Sounds like a hybrid between glass and "transparent aluminium".
While it's not quite transparent aluminum, transparent aluminum oxide ceramics like ALON are used for ballistic armor on ships, helicopters, and other military vehicles.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aye, that's the ticket, laddie!
For those downvoting this, please go watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Yes, please. I upvoted it. It doesn't deserve any downvotes.
Fiction becoming reality. I thought "transparent aluminum" was just completely made-up nonsense when I saw the movie. Whodda thunk!
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#15Wait. A big elasticity coefficient is not the same as 'unbreakable'. Being a mixture of silicates and alumina, I'll be very surprised if this is not fragile. There's nothing about it on the article.
Glass itself isn't always "fragile" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert%27s_Drop so perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised
Oh man, I love Prince Rupert's Drop. As usual, Smarter Every Day has a great video on them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aye, that's the ticket, laddie!
For those downvoting this, please go watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
What if that's the reason they are downvoting it? The anti fun knob is probably unnecessarily cranked to 11 here, but movie references aren't really that funny.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#17Sounds like a hybrid between glass and "transparent aluminium".
Sapphire crystal [1] is something like transparent aluminum rust. Alumina [2] is too, I think. They might be the same thing, I'm not a chemist. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxide
Sapphire and ruby are both aluminum oxide - i.e. 'alumina' - just with different kinds and amounts of impurities.
Yes, it is technically the stuff you get when you throw aluminum powder over a fire and it lights up and burns brightly. But the crystals you obtain that way are very tiny.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#18This is cool regardless. But I am interested in cost and weight. If it is too costly we might only see it used in niche applications (e.g. aircraft windows?). But even then if it weighs more than regular glass it may not even be utilised there. I'd like to see it used on vehicle front windshields, cracks are a constant pain in the butt, and they can leave the rear window and side windows as regular glass for emergenc…
Your windshield is safety glass, so consideration must be given for the need to dissipate energy when a human head collides with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield#Safety
Trivia: A famous lawsuit about the safety of windshield glass was the _Pane_ vs. Ford case in 1917
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those downvoting this, please go watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
What if that's the reason they are downvoting it? The anti fun knob is probably unnecessarily cranked to 11 here, but movie references aren't really that funny.
> cranked to 11 here... movie references
Intentional reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven#Original_scene_fr... ?
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#20To nitpick, the article uses the words 'tough', 'hard' and 'rigid' to describe this glass, though those all mean different things.
I'd suggest that all glass is both hard and rigid, so presumably 'tough' is what they're going for. If so, the glass should be able to withstand a large tensile force without fracture or permanent deformation.
'unbreakable' is also a little disingenuous. Everything is breakable, given a big enough hammer ;)