This transparent material has unusual properties, which also change under different conditions. It is these extraordinary qualities of glass that allow you to perform extremely interesting tricks with them. The article describes seven experiments that anyone can do at home, using materials and tools available to everyone.
Focus one: fragile, but incredibly hard
To carry out this simple experiment, you need a gas burner, a glass of cold water and a glass tube.
The trick is done as follows:
We light the burner and heat the glass tube in its flame to the melting point.
The melt falls into cold water, cools and forms droplets with thin long hairs at the ends. We use them to pull the tumors out into the air.
Place one of the droplets on a metal anvil and hit it hard with a hammer.
The glass droplet flew away, but remained intact. A clearly visible depression appeared on the surface of the metal.
They clamped the tail of the glass droplet with pliers and pressed sharply on the handles - the product shattered into small fragments.
This experience clearly shows that the tail of a glass drop is its weak point.
When conducting experiments, safety precautions should be taken to avoid getting splinters in the eyes.
Trick two: cutting glass with regular scissors
This experiment will require a fairly large container of water, and a piece of sheet glass with a circle or any other geometric figure drawn on it.
We immerse the plate in water and begin to cut it along the contour using the most ordinary stationery scissors.
The trick demonstrates the fact that window glass, immersed in ordinary water at room temperature, can be easily machined.
To avoid cuts on the hand holding the plate, you must wear a rubberized glove. As a result, we got an almost perfect glass circle.
See for yourself - it works!
Focus three: sound and resonance
We take an ordinary glass goblet on a tall thin stem and a glass with ordinary tap water.
The experiment is performed in the following sequence:
Wet your finger in water and run it along the top edge of the glass.
Place another glass nearby and pour as much water into it as needed. Move a wet finger along the top edge of the second glass until they sound the same.
Place a piece of cocktail straw on a glass of water. Using a finger dipped in water, we make the sound of an empty glass.
Acoustic vibrations cause resonance in the second glass of water, and the tube begins to move spontaneously. We continue until she falls.
Focus four: thermal cutting of glass with twine
A simple experiment is carried out with ordinary beer bottles.We will also need a small container, twine and some rubbing alcohol.
Let's start demonstrating the trick:
Pour a little pure alcohol into a bowl, cut a piece of twine from a skein and immerse it in a flammable liquid for impregnation. We wrap the bottle with twine in several turns and set it on fire. Let the alcohol burn out and immerse the bottle in cold water.
The vessel bursts at the place where the twine is wound. We repeat the experiment and immerse a bottle with still burning twine in water. The experiment fails - she remains intact.
We hold the bottle in the water and here is success - it splits to form an almost even ring.
Sharp cooling of glass heated to high temperatures in water leads to its destruction. In the case of a bottle: it splits along the heating line.
Trick five: breaking a bottle with your bare hand
A very effective trick that can be performed in a company outdoors. It's very simple:
Take any glass bottle and fill it to the top with ordinary water at room temperature.
Holding the bottle with your left hand, apply a sharp blow to the neck with your right hand.
If the impact is sharp enough, the bottom of the bottle falls off.
The trick can be done many times, the result will be the same, only the degree of destruction of the bottle may differ.
In fact, the destruction of a beer container occurs under the influence of water hammer caused by a sudden movement of liquid. This trick won't work without water.
Trick six: bending the neck
A bottle of beer or Coca-Cola with its straight neck is not always comfortable when you drink from it - you have to tilt your head back. Let's try together to correct this flaw of glass blowers:
We wind a fairly large wire loop onto the neck of the bottle using pliers.
Using gas burners, heat the glass until red hot.
Use the wire ring to bend the neck of the bottle to the angle we need.
Let the glass cool, pour the drink into the bottle and close with a cork. For friends, you can make several of these defective products with different slopes.
Anyone can see that drinking from it is much more convenient.
Trick seven: breaking impact-resistant glass
An entertaining experiment will require some expenses: we will need glass from a car door and several spark plugs.
Let's test the transparent ability of a transparent plate to withstand impact:
Holding the tempered glass with one hand, strike it firmly with a hammer.
It remains intact.
We break the spark plug insulator, collect the fragments and the central conductors.
We take the pieces of porcelain and throw them into the glass.
The hardened plate is destroyed into small fragments.
Yes, we did it. We take another auto glass and repeat our experience. This time we throw the center conductors from the spark plugs, which bounce off the glass like armor. Complete failure!
We repeat the trick by throwing pieces of porcelain insulator and make sure that the destruction of glass in our first experiment was not accidental.
When performing any tricks with glass, you must be very careful not to get hurt by sharp fragments. Wear protective glasses and gloves.
