Before I get goin’ here, remember that my usual research is limited to ass, NASCAR, NFL and tits… usually in that order, though sometimes tits moves up the list, depending on my mood…
Basically what I’m saying is don’t mess with me about the efficiency or accuracy of my research!
Anyway… One of my readers, Kathleen, asked me to do some research about the physical properties of glass, specifically the possibility of it flowing given enough time. Kathleen was at odds with another reader, Elaine, and asked me to settle the score, as Elaine disagreed with her about the potential fluidity of glass.
I immediately sided with Kathleen, as I’ve heard before about centuries old buildings possessing windows that were thicker at the bottom than at the top. The theory is that, over time, the glass actually flows down, creating the thicker part of the window.
As requested, I put on my physics hat and started doing some research! At one point I think I could actually feel my skull start to creak under the pressure of my brain beginning to explode. I haven’t done research like this in, well, for-evah! Twenty years to be exact…
What did I find out?
I was fascinated by what I learned! For starters, there remain scientific opinions that glass can be classified as either a super-cooled liquid or a non crystalline solid. Look it up! It will make your brain swell…
Basically, however, glass is an amorphous (non crystalline) solid material. Check it out…
Glass is on the right… being all jacked up on a molecular level allows some to posit that glass is more like a liquid… essentially a super cooled liquid. It’s not. It’s a solid through and through…
For my purposes, any time I’ve come into contact with glass, it sure as hell feels like a solid…!
The question posed by Kathleen, however was, “Does glass flow over decades or even centuries?”
Nope!
Glass (crown glass) made for buildings built 150+ years ago was created using a manufacturing process that allowed deficiencies in that glass…. The shit was uneven, so when the glass was cut to fit windows they put the uneven, or heavier, thicker part of the glass at the bottom of the window panes to increase structural rigidity…
Sorry, Kathleen, you and I were wrong. And, as usual, Elaine was absolutely right!
For Shiggles 