Hey, I was laying on my sofa watching tv and the glass in front of the fireplace randomly shattered (seriously, it just crumpled). Nothing hit it, and I am really interested in why it happened.

 

Thanks,

John

 

EDIT: BTW, no fire at the time

Were you playing any music?

Nope. There are two sheets of glass so if I was wouldn't they both shatter?

could have been the thermal expansion combined with some vibrations at the right frequency.

I had something like this once... a pane of glass just randomly shatterred.

 

Could be it had been under tension for a long time and slowly atom by atom the bonds were weakening.

 

Or there was a sudden temperature change which caused expansion.

 

Or sound waves.

was the fire on?

No.

EDIT: BTW, no fire at the time

glass shattering

 

God works in strange ways.

glass shattering

 

God works in strange ways.

ya know thats what i was thinking cause maybe that shattering would lead to us changing the fireplace and then a series of events etc etc

sigh...... God didn't shatter the glass!!!!

A combination of some unltrasonic sounds and thermal differences (even small ones) could be responsibe when applied at the same time.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

A combination of some unltrasonic sounds and thermal differences (even small ones) could be responsibe when applied at the same time.

 

 

Has this been proven to happen? There are alot of things that are possible but that are so rediculously improbably that they never happen and never will.

Has this been proven to happen? There are alot of things that are possible but that are so rediculously improbably that they never happen and never will.

 

I think it has, minute changes and deviations in it glass temperature have a starting effect (same as larger temperature differenes just in small scale) which should then give the untrasonic sounds the ability to shatter it... maybe something worth testing out but has it been proves, I read it had but I'm not shure.

 

I'll have to remind myself to book the school lab for tomorow so I can have a go.

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

if something was vibrating near the panes resonance frequency even a relatively quiet sound could build up enough energy to break the pane. done an experiment on this once. broke a wine glass from 20 m