Glass Shatter facts
While investigating facts about Glass Shatter, I found out little known, but curios details like:
During the opening ceremony of Ottawa international Airport’s new terminal in 1959 a USAF F-104 Starfighter did a supersonic flypast. The resulting sonic boom shattered nearly all the glass in the airport and caused significant structural damage, delaying the opening for another year.
King Charles VI of France suffered from glass delusions, a psychiatric phenomenon in which people believe they're made of glass. Charles VI refused to let people touch him and wore reinforced clothing to protect himself from accidental "shattering."
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 30 of the best facts about Glass Shatter I managed to collect.
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The Prince Rupert's Drop, created by dripping molten glass into cold water. Capable of shattering bullets on impact and withstanding the blow of a hammer, this "glass droplet" is characterized by its incredibly high residual stress.
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Adrian Newey, the chief technical officer of Red Bull Racing, was expelled from Repton School after he maxed out an audio mixer during a concert and shattered the building's 11th century stained glass windows
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European PYREX is more resistant to breakage due to temperature change than USA PYREX because it is still made with the original borosilicate glass instead of soda glass (which can shatter in hot shards with sudden temp changes)
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Doctor Harold Ridley observed that acrylic shards (unlike glass) were not rejected from the eyes of WWII pilots whose canopies had shattered; he took this observation, and despite fierce opposition and doubt, pioneered the intraocular lens, and the miracle of modern cataract surgery.
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Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 226 is in effect now for all new cars sold in the US. Many new vehicles have laminated side glass, which does not break and shatter the way tempered glass does, raising concerns for passengers trapped in sinking and burning cars.
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Bullet proof glass is usually made by sandwiching a layer of deformable polycarbonate plastic between glass layers. The bullet’s impact shatters the outer layer of glass, spreading the energy over a wide area so the plastic layer ‘gives’, but does not rupture.
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About Spontaneous Glass Breakage, where a piece of tempered glass may shatter at random, due to defects in the glass when manufactured or installed.
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In an ABA basketball game on November 6, 1970, Charlie Hentz shattered a backboard after a dunk, causing the glass backboard to be replaced with a wooden one. Later in the game, he shatters the other glass backboard after dunking, which led to the two teams agreeing to end the game after that.
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An unusual psychiatric disorder known as The Glass Delusion swept through Europe during the late Medieval period and it consisted of people coming to believe they were made of glass "and therefore likely to shatter into pieces.". French king Charles VI suffered from it.
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Mantis shrimp have twelve photoreceptors in each eye, communicate via polarised light, and have a punch so powerful that they can shatter glass.
King Charles VI of France thought he was made of glass, and had iron rods sewn into his clothes to prevent himself from shattering if he came into contact with another person. - source
Lasik eye surgery was accidentally discovered in 1974 after a Russian boy fell off his bike. He shattered his eyeglasses which lodged glass particles into both eyes but noticed a considerable improvement in his vision after doctors shaved off the clear protective tissue surrounding his cornea. - source
In a heated scene in Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio slammed his hand onto a table so hard that a glass shattered and badly cut his hand. He continued the scene while his hand bled. This version of the scene ended up in the movie.
There is a legend that flexible glass was invented around 20AD, when a craftsman presented Tiberius Caesar a bowl of this glass, whereupon he threw it to the ground and it did not shatter. Fearing the implications of such a material, the Caesar had the man beheaded, the formula now lost forever. - source
About Prince Rupert drops, Made from molten glass these drops are stronger than tempered glass and steel. Yet by breaking off the tail will shatter instantaneously
King Charles VI of France suffered from the glass delusion, a psychiatric disorder in which people feared that they were made of glass “and therefore likely to shatter into pieces”. He refused to allow people to touch him, and wore reinforced clothing to protect himself.
Two glass marbled can hold ~40 tons of weight before shattering.
About ninja rocks: broken shards of spark plugs that quickly and quietly shatter the glass side windows of cars
Radial keratotomy, corrective eye surgery to repair myopia was discovered when a boy fell of his bike and had glasses shatter into them, in order to remove glass, the doctor made radial incisions and when healed they discovered his vision was better.
