Things you did not know

[Calobi]

According to Wikipedia, "in the scientific sense the term glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous solids."

According to some university's website the making of glass involves "forming a thick syrup and eventually an amorphous solid. The molecules then have a disordered arrangement, but sufficient cohesion to maintain some rigidity. In this state it is often called an amorphous solid or glass."

Amorphous solids are solids which lack the molecular structure that most solids have, most commonly due to a rapid cooling of the material from it's liquid state. Cotton candy is also considered an amorphous solid.

I, however, am not a physicist nor have I studied glass in any detail. Just writing what I found on a quick search through Google.

 

[Manta173]

According to Wikipedia, "in the scientific sense the term glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous solids."
According to some university's website the making of glass involves "forming a thick syrup and eventually an amorphous solid. The molecules then have a disordered arrangement, but sufficient cohesion to maintain some rigidity. In this state it is often called an amorphous solid or glass."
Amorphous solids are solids which lack the molecular structure that most solids have, most commonly due to a rapid cooling of the material from it's liquid state. Cotton candy is also considered an amorphous solid.

In that case your definition of a liquid need to be called up. By the grade school definition anything that maitains its volume and flows into the shape of its container is a liquid. Just because we don't live long enough to see it doesn't mean its not flowing.

 

[Geoffrey42]

(Mythbusters are even worse)

The POV expressed early on in the xkcd about Mythbusters (before the zombie walks in) is exactly how I feel about it. They claim to be busting myths, but they go about it so badly, that you simply can't depend on what they're doing. Entertaining, sometimes, sure, but half the time they aren't even really trying.

 

[Wormthong]

If you ever meet an Eskimo, do not call them an Eskimo. Call him/her an Inuit. Eskimo means "Stupid person that eats raw meat."

yes but not all eskimo are inuit there are other tribes

 

[tooktook]

If Half-Life became a movie, Hugh Laurie would be a perfect Gordon Freeman.

Nah, to old.

In my country (South Africa) we have internet, shopping malls cars and even cities.
Stupid American Assholesaid in American accent) Noways. that ain't possible and stuff. Africa is just jungle anywhere you go. Only abhoridjenies sorry I mean Zulus live there.

I am now choking on my own rage. Africa may be made up of genocidal maniacs but we are NOT all jungle dammit!

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I'm sorry but chemists are not experts on the states of matter by any definition. Physicists are.... and I happen to be well trained in both... chemical engineering bachelors and a masters in polymer science and one in polymer engineering.

Glass is a liquid.

funny how i learned about the different states of matter in chemistry class not physics

and btw if you look quickly at wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass with many citations, it's stated it's a liquid

i'd go track down the pyscho clown cause he has a doctorate in polymer physics, which deals mostly with plastics not glass and ask him but he's a bit busy opening his store

 

[Mstrswrd]

Here's anothe rone.

"Human treadmills powered medieval cranes. Blind people were preferred so that they wouldn't be scared by how high up they were and by how poorly the machines were built."

Also from Ripley's. Awesome.

 

[Quindo]

Last week someone told me this:

If someone jumps in front of a train, in order to classify as a person, police have to find at least 30 kg of human meat on the tracks.

Which made me think of the following, rather disturbing question; would you, finding only 28 kg's, get out a toothpick and start picking the wheels?

 

[CatAttack]

heres 2 random facts you might not know

bats are mammals and Hitler was a vegetarian

 

[Anarchemitis]

The fastest object ever made by humans is the Heilos 2 Solar Probe. It travelled 252,792km/h (70,220 meters/s) on record-set. The Solar probe is still in orbit around the sun today, ever so slightly inside the orbit of Mercury, thereby setting the record to the closest known obejct to our sun.

 

[Manta173]

I'm sorry but chemists are not experts on the states of matter by any definition. Physicists are.... and I happen to be well trained in both... chemical engineering bachelors and a masters in polymer science and one in polymer engineering.

Glass is a liquid.

funny how i learned about the different states of matter in chemistry class not physics

and btw if you look quickly at wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass with many citations, it's stated it's a liquid

i'd go track down the pyscho clown cause he has a doctorate in polymer physics, which deals mostly with plastics not glass and ask him but he's a bit busy opening his store

Thats actually the most applicable to glass you can get except for specialists. Polymer physicists know more about this than anyone else, but again... what is that second word...physics.... hmmmm... And if you really look into it.... phase transitions are thermodynamic properties... thermo is a physics topic. (although chemists try to figure it out with varying levels of success...)

 

[Manta173]

A platypus is the only mammal that has venom... (the males have spurs on their back legs)
It is also one of only 2 egg laying mammals.

The opossum is the only marsupial outside of Australia.

Cats male genitalia have spines... hence the noise cats make when... making babies... (gotta love PBS)

Polar bears and grizzly bears are the same species. They are different sub-species of brown bear.

Anacondas are the only creature known to consider humans as a regular part of their diet. (supposedly everything else that eats us doesn't do it by choice... just if the opportunity arises)

 

[Psychedeliasmith]

I did metallurgy and material engineering at university, and I know the answer to the 'What is glass?' question.

And I'm not telling.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Thats actually the most applicable to glass you can get except for specialists. Polymer physicists know more about this than anyone else, but again... what is that second word...physics.... hmmmm... And if you really look into it.... phase transitions are thermodynamic properties... thermo is a physics topic. (although chemists try to figure it out with varying levels of success...)

funny part is glass isn't a polymer, stuff such as plastics, at least that's what my friend who has a doctorate in polymer physics did a lot of work with and most of the basic research you can do on polymer science.

even that glass article on wikipedia said "not polymer science"

 

[cleverlymadeup]

ancient ppl had a system of measurement that accurately measured the circumference of the earth better than we could until very recently

 

[TomNook]

After the allies liberated the Nazi concentration camps, all the homosexuals were sent straight to jail.
Kind of Ironic.

Well, they don't tend to teach children (at least in America) the Nazis rounded up homosexuals and sent them to the concentration camps right along with the Jews in the first place. Most of the people I know are very shocked to learn where the pink triangle came from.

I'll add a bit to this, though. The man who cracked the Nazi's Enigma code, the breaking of which ultimately allowed the Allies to win World War II, was himself arrested and convicted for being homosexual.

There's irony for you.

Keeping with that theme in a very loose-linked logic chain sort of way, I'll throw this in the pot for obscure facts:

The last words of Socrates were "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Do pay it. Don't forget."

I was taught that Hitler sent everyone not Aryan German to the camps. This whole, they don't teach this shit in the US because it messes with our image is starting to piss me off.

 

[TomNook]

Sorry double post. Please Ignore.

 

[Manta173]

Thats actually the most applicable to glass you can get except for specialists. Polymer physicists know more about this than anyone else, but again... what is that second word...physics.... hmmmm... And if you really look into it.... phase transitions are thermodynamic properties... thermo is a physics topic. (although chemists try to figure it out with varying levels of success...)

funny part is glass isn't a polymer, stuff such as plastics, at least that's what my friend who has a doctorate in polymer physics did a lot of work with and most of the basic research you can do on polymer science.

even that glass article on wikipedia said "not polymer science"

I don't see anywhere in my post that says glass is a polymer.... and as I mentioned before I have two masters degrees on polymers... I've done 5 years worth of research on phase transitions in polymers... so I kinda know this stuff. The reason why it mentions that in wikipedia is because polymer science has a lot to do with glass transitions... not real glass just the transition of a polymeric material from highly mobile segments to low mobility (think crankshaft motion). Gooey to pseudo-solid basically.

 

[Lukeje]

Thats actually the most applicable to glass you can get except for specialists. Polymer physicists know more about this than anyone else, but again... what is that second word...physics.... hmmmm... And if you really look into it.... phase transitions are thermodynamic properties... thermo is a physics topic. (although chemists try to figure it out with varying levels of success...)

I'd like to point out that Thermodynamics is just maths with a little bit of physical intuition; anyone with a grasp of differential equations can derive it (if you mean stat thermo, then that's a completely different kettle of fish, but is still well understood by Chemists at least as well as by physicists).
Whilst physicists may claim to know everything (or at least have theories), it is Chemists that deal with real world problems. Unfortunately, the movement of glass does not happen on any sort of time scale chemists deal with; I have to say the best people to ask would probably be geologists with the sort of timescales that are required(!)
Oh, and to the poster who said that 'Solids have a regular ordered structure', that's the definition of a crystal not a solid, solids may be amorphous.

 

[The_woods_man]

It was physically posible for Dodo's to have flown, but they seemed to not realise this...

I'm pretty sure this is true about the bumble bee (the big fluffy ones), and so that is my contribution.