/// Every now and then we receive a question from our followers on this platform, and this time, we got an interesting question from Germany. Ingo from Ulm would like to know why glass is transparent in nature, and why it becomes less transparent when it breaks into small pieces.
That’s a twofold question, and therefore, also demands two answers:
First of all, glass is a product that is primarily composed of Silicon Dioxide (silica sand). When melted down it creates a transparent fluid, which solidifies slowly. In fact, the solidification process has to be done gradually, and that is the reason behind the glass remaining transparent as opposed to it crystallizing.
Second of all, when glass breaks into smaller pieces (depending on its treatment as safety glass breaks into much smaller pieces than regular float glass), the reflections and the amount of borders across the small granular chunks become abounding. Despite the fact that this does not alter the actual transparency of the glass, the fact that you are able to look through the edges of the little pieces, makes the glass appear to be less transparent. In this case the transparency of the glass, makes it look even less transparent than it really is.
We hope this short answer makes it a little clearer.
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