this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] neptune@dmv.social 95 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's the cooling of silica (really, any material) that makes it a glass, and even then, transparency in the visual wavelength is not automatically certain.

[–] teft@lemmy.world 75 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] neptune@dmv.social 61 points 7 months ago

Good example. Obsidian is apparently 70% silica. Iron is apparently what makes it black in color. If it's thin enough, it is translucent.

If you cool pure silica slowly enough, with impurities to cause seeding, you will get tons of crystals, not a single glass, that won't be transparent.

[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 40 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

3090 degrees is above its boiling point (which is 2950 degrees).

So it doesn't become "clear", it literally vaporises.

[–] neptune@dmv.social 79 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

You are talking Celsius while the meme is likely referring to F (you can tell because Obama)

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago

When will the US finally use the metric system 😮‍💨

Anti Commercial AI thingyCC BY-NC-SA 4.0

[–] Spzi@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

This ambiguity is what I had in mind when I read "let me be clear". Though now I get it.

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 35 points 7 months ago

Glassblowers: thanks Obama

[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I wonder how they figured that out

Did molten lava touch sand and then they were like 😳

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

Maybe tektites? Natural glass formed when ~~lightning~~ meteorites strike~~s~~ sand. I only remember the name because they share it with the jumpy spiders from Zelda

[–] tektite 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

When lightning strikes sand it creates fulgerites.

Tektites are formed when meteorites strike.

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I am sorry for insulting your people

[–] tektite 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Right. Now don't do it again!

Hi! You included a link which is really difficult for mobile users to tap. Here is a much longer and more tappable link.

I am not a bot, and this action was performed manually. I recall that there was a bot for this on Reddit. Does an equivalent exist on Lemmy yet?

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 6 points 7 months ago

Oh look there's a whole Wikipedia page on it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_glass

Possibly an accidental byproduct of metal working

[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Ha, nice reference

I thought you were talking about tektites for a second.

[–] Hule@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Jules Verne wrote about this in one of his novels. The mysterious island, iirc.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

It’s like minecraft.

[–] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

If you spent your days cooking with fire, and your nights watching it and warming yourself, you'd definitely start tossing anything you could find into it just to see what would happen. People did this every day and night for eons.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think people just experimented a lot. Try enough random things, you're bound to come across cool chemistry every once in a while. If they figured out how to make really hot fire, that opens the path to "let's try making various things really hot to see what happens".

Of course, I know basically nothing about [pre]history or human development so I could be way off

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

first it becomes glowy orange tho

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 8 points 7 months ago

Oozy orange blob is the Trump phase.

[–] robocall@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

More like an orangey white like an incandescent bulb, maybe.

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev -3 points 7 months ago

how about no