Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.
The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica (SiO2) plus sodium oxide Na2O from soda ash, lime CaO, and several minor additives. Often, the term glass is used in a restricted sense to refer to this specific use.
In science, however, the term glass is usually defined in a much wider sense, including every solid that possesses a non-crystalline (i.e., amorphous) structure and that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state. In this wider sense, glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials: metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers. For many applications (bottles, eyewear) polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative to traditional silica glasses.
Read more about Glass: Silicate Glass, Structure, Glass Versus Supercooled Liquid, Glass Art
Other articles related to "glass":
... The Corning Glass Works of Corning, New York, designed and developed the multilayered panes that made up the new window ... The inner pane was made up of three inner glass panels bonded to make a single inner pane ... mm) thick sheet of Vycor, while the others were tempered glass ...
... Frosted glass is produced by the sandblasting or acid etching of clear sheet glass ... It has the effect of rendering the glass translucent by scattering of light during transmission, thus blurring images while still transmitting light ... Decorative patterns may be imposed upon otherwise plain glass by using wax or other resist to retain transparent areas ...
... Apart from historical collections in general museums, modern works of art in glass can be seen in a variety of museums, including the Chrysler Museum, the Museum of Glass in ... detailed models of flowers made of painted glass ... The Blaschka Glass Flowers are still an inspiration to glassblowers today ...
... Early production consisted of window glass, chandeliers and drinking glasses ... was at the forefront of new trends and technical developments, producing pressed glass, and in the 1880s setting up a new glass-cutting workshop ... its reputation as one of the leading Swedish manufacturers with a range of fine art glass and tableware by distinguished designers such as Vicke Lindstrand, artistic director from 1950-1973 ...
... The manufacture of glass is one of the most important uses of sodium carbonate ... with silica and calcium carbonate and heated to high temperatures, then cooled rapidly, glass is produced ... This type of glass is known as soda lime glass ...
Famous quotes containing the word glass:
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Sunshine of late afternoon—
On the glass tray
a glass pitcher, the tumbler
turned down, by which
a key is lying—And the
immaculate white bed”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“Shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)