Prince Rupert's drop
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Learn about and see how it’s made – https://youtu.be/xe-f4gokRBs
Encasing a shattering drop in glass –https://youtu.be/C1KT8PS6Zs4
The process the team uses in the second video to freeze the break in glass is pretty awesome! (If you’re into that kind of thing)
He shoots the Prince Rupert's drop with a bullet. The bullet wins. In high speed, you can see the bullet splat against the glass and break into shards, long before the glass breaks. Really neat.
Prince Rupert's Drop vs Molten Glass [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35591019 - April 2023 (60 comments)
Prince Rupert’s Drop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31781678 - June 2022 (1 comment)
Mystery of Prince Rupert's Drop at 130,000 fps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5606228 - April 2013 (2 comments)
Prince Rupert's Drop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5550646 - April 2013 (13 comments)
The Curious Properties of a Molten Glass Blob Dropped in Cold Water - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5440179 - March 2013 (5 comments)
Prince Rupert's Drop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=486103 - Feb 2009 (2 comments)
> These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties, such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged.
You can hit a shovel against the flat side of a piece of tempered glass and not break it because the shovel is too large & flat. But you chip the corner, or use a small tool like a punch break, and the whole thing will pop.
Now, use the edge of the shovel against the edge of the glass and you'll have a lot more luck breaking it.
Another odd thing is that when two pieces chip at the corners, I've only ever seen one of them break. Somehow the other piece always seems to survive, though it normally gets scratched up enough that it's tossed out anyhow.
Two pieces on the conveyor out of the quench running into each other is probably the most common way to break them in the factory other than having them explode in the quench. They also break in people's hands when you chip the corner on the racks they're loaded into, which usually makes the unloaders jump when it happens, because they may be holding a 30"x70" piece of glass that gives them a shower.
Oh, and the damn stuff can just break spontaneously. It might be due to temperature changes in those cases, it's not like anyone can say, but every so often a lite sitting in a rack will just blow up even when nobody is near it, though it's quite rare. From what I recall, it most often happens in winter.
Source: I worked for an cut & temper/IG operation for quite a few years and saw everything myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsXZVMEsGzY
It doesn't need to be like that, just clipping the corner when racking it or having two pieces tap edges while it's on a conveyor will do it too.
The use punch breaks, which are like tiny ice picks with a flat handle, in the factory to do break tests to ensure that the glass is properly tempered. That will break it even when pressed down on the flat side of the glass.
…that glass bubble
That finds philosphers such trouble
Whose least part crackd, the whole does fly
And wits are crack’d, to find out why.
Hudibras by Samuel Butler, 1663 (on the mystery of the Prince Rupert’s Drop)/s
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
A coworker shared this video about the artisan who makes theses drops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KT8PS6Zs4&pp=ygURc21hcnRlc...