Did you know?... The Interesting Fact Thread

[Martian]

Originally Posted by hulk

It could go either way

hulk - it's important to understand the context. Glass isn't a solid insofar as it's not crystalline; amorphous solids (ones that don't form crystals) are hard to define in a classical sense. However, if taken that one of the key elements of the liquid state is viscosity, glass could easily be considered a solid since it doesn't flow in any appreciable manner. Read the wikipedia article before mentioning church panes, as they're addressed there.

Compare that with pitch, which is a liquid with extremely high viscosity. Pitch acts like a solid in many ways and will even shatter when dropped. However, when observed for extremely long periods of time, pitch can be observed to flow and drip.

Reference

I suppose I ought to hand out a new tidbit, as well.

Some might call this a waste of good libations, but an effective method of dealing with a slug infestation in one's garden is to set out dishes filled with beer. The slugs, who apparently share at least one common trait with most of the world's men, find the beer irresistable. Offered what to a slug seems a veritable lake of the stuff, they'll drown themselves within it. Care must be taken to shelter the beer, however, as the slugs have the good taste not to drink it if it's been diluted by rain water.

[MrFluffy]

Originally Posted by Augi

A bird in zero gravity will die of dehydration in micro-gravity. This is because it cannot swallow without the aid of gravity for there are no muscles in its esophagus.

Except for pigeons.

[Lady Sage]

As for my glass post I have seen the result of glass being the thickest liquid with my own eyes. Go to a house with original windows that is over 100 years old. If the windows are actual glass and not the treated stuff they will be thicker at the bottom.

[Lotronex]

Originally Posted by Lady Sage

As for my glass post I have seen the result of glass being the thickest liquid with my own eyes. Go to a house with original windows that is over 100 years old. If the windows are actual glass and not the treated stuff they will be thicker at the bottom.

The difference in thickness is actually due to the way the glass panes were made. When they were installed, the workmen put them w/ the heavier/thicker side down, which was more stable.


New fact: The Enigma cipher the Nazis used was actually cracked by the Polish. Before they were invaded they passed on all their information to the British. The Pole who first cracked the code managed to espace to England, where he spent the rest of the war cracking low level codes, because he was never entirely trusted. After the war, the British distributed many of the captured Enigma machines throughout their colonies. At the time, none of them knew that they could be cracked.

[Willravel]

Did you know that breast milk can cure bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eye)? It's true. An antibody in breast milk known as immunoglobulin A prevents the bacteria from attaching itself to the surface of the eye. The spread is thus limited and the infection usually goes away in a matter of hours.

It's also a great way to confuse your cat.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by Martian

I wonder why people don't double-check facts before putting them up?

Glass is a solid.

Actually it is a liquid since it never can solidifies. New research is trying to use this same properties to make new forms of metals.


Click quote to view LiveScience Article

The breakthrough involved solving the decades-old problem of just what glass is. It has been known that that despite its solid appearance, glass and gels are actually in a "jammed" state of matter — somewhere between liquid and solid — that moves very slowly. Like cars in a traffic jam, atoms in a glass are in something like suspended animation, unable to reach their destination because the route is blocked by their neighbors.

[Martian]

It's an amorphous solid.

An amorphous solid is not a solid in the traditional sense, but it's certainly not a liquid. Glass has a viscosity of zero. It doesn't evaporate. It has a melting point.

I have not read your article sir, because the abstract has failed to tell me anything I don't already know.

If one wanted to be completely accurate, one could say that glass is neither a solid nor a liquid; it displays properties associated with both. It would most accurately be classified as a state between liquid and solid. I like the term amorphous solid, because it satisfies the intuitive notion that glass is solid due to the above exclusion criteria, while acknowledging that it does not form a typical lattice. What it most certainly is not is a liquid.

I thought we were done with this a while ago.

[Hain]

I just like to point out the fact (for others and myself) that it can't ever solidify like one would hope a true [crystalline] solid would.

[clavus]

What about safety glass- the kind that bursts into little cubes when struck?