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To: Swordmaker; Freedom4US
[Glass is not a liquid, this is an urban legend.]

Your urban legend is about to be trumped by the Cornell Museum of Glass

No, it isn't. Nothing in your link states that glass is a liquid. It only says that it has *disordered molecules* like most liquids do, but that's not the same as saying that it *is* a liquid. Having disordered molecules is not what makes something a liquid -- having *mobile* molecules in contact with each other is.

64 posted on 05/16/2006 11:19:30 PM PDT by Ichneumon (Ignorance is curable, but the afflicted has to want to be cured.)
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To: Ichneumon
No, it isn't. Nothing in your link states that glass is a liquid. It only says that it has *disordered molecules* like most liquids do, but that's not the same as saying that it *is* a liquid. Having disordered molecules is not what makes something a liquid -- having *mobile* molecules in contact with each other is.

The Cornell Museum of Glass provided the information that glass had some of the same attributes as liquids.

The answer provided by the University of California Riverside Physics department (interesting read) is:

There is no clear answer to the question "Is glass solid or liquid?". In terms of molecular dynamics and thermodynamics it is possible to justify various different views that it is a highly viscous liquid, an amorphous solid, or simply that glass is another state of matter which is neither liquid nor solid. The difference is semantic. In terms of its material properties we can do little better. There is no clear definition of the distinction between solids and highly viscous liquids. All such phases or states of matter are idealisations of real material properties. Nevertheless, from a more common sense point of view, glass should be considered a solid since it is rigid according to every day experience. The use of the term "supercooled liquid" to describe glass still persists, but is considered by many to be an unfortunate misnomer that should be avoided. In any case, claims that glass panes in old windows have deformed due to glass flow have never been substantiated. Examples of Roman glassware and calculations based on measurements of glass visco-properties indicate that these claims cannot be true. The observed features are more easily explained as a result of the imperfect methods used to make glass window panes before the float glass process was invented.

That trumps the "urban legend" claim... as did the Cornell Museum. And that was my point. To simply dismiss a question such as this as an "urban legend" is not at all accurate.

67 posted on 05/17/2006 12:01:05 AM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!")
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