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Monday, June 23, 2008

Glass studies

Source: MSNBC

Scientists reveal why glass is glass
Despite solid appearance, glass is actually in a "jammed" state of matter
By Robin Lloyd
updated 1:37 p.m. PT, Mon., June. 23, 2008

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in the bizarre properties of glass, which behaves at times like both a solid and a liquid.


Interesting article especially the part about metallic glass. Here's one more quote:

...An icosahedron is like a 3-D pentagon, and just as you cannot tile a floor with pentagons, you cannot fill 3-D space with icosahedrons, Royall explained. That is, you can't make a lattice out of pentagons.

When it comes to glass, Frank thought, there is a competition between crystal formation and pentagons that prevents the construction of a crystal. If you cool a liquid down and it makes a lot of pentagons and the pentagons survive, the crystal cannot form....


Explains a lot.

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