Heavy Glass

RARE 19CEN SET OF BOHEMIAN HEAVY OVERLAY MOSER GLASSES MULTI COLOR IN FITTED BOX
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VTG HAND BLOWN GLASS NEMTOY VASE POTTERY MADE IN ITALY 295 TALL HEAVY 20 LB
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$3000 RARE LARGE MUSEUM QUALITY 19TH CENTURY HEAVY HAND CUT GLASS CRYSTAL BOWL
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Huge Heavy Tapio Wirkkala Ice Art Glass Vase Finland
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Amazing Huge Bohemian Czech Moser Cobalt Glass Chalice Heavy Gold Enamel Signed
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Moser vintage art glass footed vase cranberry color with heavy gold designs
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Heavy Glass
How can light pass through a heavy solid object like ice or glass?

speaking from the molecular level, light is suppose to reflect off the particles back and thats how we see the color of objects. but it passes right through water and glass, why? they are made up of molecules just like any other object

To answer this question, don’t think about light "reflecting" off particles, think about it being absorbed.

Let's assume you have a pure white light source (contains equal amounts of the full visible light spectrum). Visible light consists of electromagnetic radiation from about 1.7 to 3.5 electron volts (eV). If an object appears transparent (clear), it means all of this energy passes through the material, with none being absorbed.

So let’s talk about glass specifically. Glass can be made out of any material that melts. To make a glass, you simply melt the raw materials - generally silica (sand), calcium (limestone), and sodium (salt) - and cool them quickly enough to “freeze” the disordered atomic structure of the liquid in place as a solid. Even though the atomic structure of the glass is disordered the bonds between the atoms of glass are generally very strong (mostly covalent). The strength of these bonds is what makes glass transparent.

So the next question is: why do strong bonds make something transparent? Well, as you remember, I said a material is transparent to visible light if it passes or “transmits” the full spectrum of electromagnetic radiation associated with visible light; again meaning the material absorbs none of this energy. In a more weakly bonded solid material (metal is a great example) the electrons aren’t “tied-up” in strong bonds so they are free to absorb relatively lower amounts of incoming energy. I’ll spare you the quantum mechanics, but suffice it to say, if an electron can absorb energy in the visible spectrum, that energy will no longer be transmitted through the material. The material will then appear colored since not all of the visible light makes it through.

If for example, a material were able to absorb high energy visible light (blue and violet) the low energy light (red and orange) would be transmitted but not the high energy light. This would make the material appear redish.

So back to those strong bonds in a glass… because the electrons are involved in high energy directional bonding, they can only absorb electromagnetic energies well above the 3.1eV maximum energy in the visible spectrum. Therefore, all the visible energy that enters one side of a glass passes through to the other side and the glass appears transparent.

The bottom line: light (energy) transmission, absorption, and reflection are very heavily dependent on the state of the valence (outer shell) electrons of a material.

Having said all that (and I know I said a lot!) there is one thing I neglected but you might find interesting. The thickness of the material is also important. A material may only absorb a small amount of energy and therefore the thicker the object, the darker the color it appears. Here’s a good example with glass: most standard glass (window glass) has low levels of iron in it, which will absorb some incoming light energy. When you look at a glass upright, meaning you’re looking at it from front to back it appears clear but its actually slightly green. If you turn the glass on its side you’l notice its so green you probably can’t see through it. This is because by turning the glass on its side you’re looking through a much thicker section.

So there you go, a very long answer to a simple question… my specialty.

-Dr. Glass

Burning a heavy duty winterjacket with Magnifying-Glass

Heavy Glass

How to hang this heavy glass plate?

I got this heavy glass plate, which I really don't want to frame and hang since it looks great on its own. How can I hang it?

Would it be safe to use the same adhesive tape that is used on large hooks that can support up to 7lbs? (A lot of it, just to be safe.)

Dimensions are 32,5 x 60 cm, thickness 6 mm, weight 2,86 kg.

http://store.inter.it/img/prodotti/big/I1925.jpg

The plate hanger is a great idea, but you will need to hang it, there is a product called gorilla hooks, they work great for sheetrock, holds a good bit of weight and makes a very small hole. With this you will not have to use the expanding wall hangers that from my experience makes a fairly large hole. Good luck.

Frameless Glass Panels Installation