So what could cause a glass to spontaneously explode?

[iris5426]

The scene: My mom's kitchen, this morning.

She pours some orange juice, half fresh squeezed, half from a carton (in case that makes a difference) into 2 small juice glasses. Puts one in the fridge, and the other she leaves on the counter. About a half hour later she comes back into the kitchen and the glass on the counter has shattered. It was a 6 oz glass (for some size perspective, maybe 2-2 1/2 in in diameter and about 4 inches tall) and looked like it just kind of fell apart. It seemed to have been made out of that safety glass that breaks up into a bunch of not so sharp pieces? So it ended up being an 8-10in puddle of OJ with little pieces of glass throughout. No sign that anything around it fell or caused anything, no cats with bleeding paws from getting into it, nothing. It's as if it just spontaneously shattered. Can that happen??

Thoughts?


:wtf:

[shraby]

1. poltergeist??

[iris5426]

13. .

:scared:

[Ganja Ninja]

2. It may have had a flaw or a crack and the cold juice caused it to.

break. Tempered glass will shatter in a bunch of little pieces when it does break.

[alfredo]

28. That's what happened to the glass that shattered in my hand.

It popped and fell to the ground. It was a real thick ornate glass.

[knitter4democracy]

3. I'd still wonder about a cat.

They can do the darndest stuff.

[mth44sc]

4. was anyone singing?

just askin' :-)

[annabanana]

5. very high pitched sound?. . . n/t

[alfredo]

6. I had a glass shatter in my hands. I think the change in temps

cause the glass to expand or contract. Over time the glass could weaken and fail. There could have been a defect in the glass.

the glass that exploded in my hand was a very pretty cut glass mug.

[noamnety]

7. stress cracks from the dishwasher

(am I right in guessing she's using a dishwasher?)

[iris5426]

14. yeah she does... nt

[noamnety]

16. Our plates do that sometimes.

They're handmade stoneware, and sometimes they'll start to get a tiny little crack, and eventually it gets big enough that when we take them out of the dishwasher, sometimes they just fall apart in our hands.

[iris5426]

17. Yeah I've read in a few places that dishwashers really reduce the life of your dishes...

They're so much easier though!

[noamnety]

19. I had a ceiling fan with lights once

and the light bulbs would spontaneously break at the joint between the glass and the metal, and float gently down to the ground in slow motion. The first time I saw that happen was intense. I got used to it eventually. I am very good at getting those metal screwy things out of the socket with a raw potato now.

[trotsky]

21. And much more environmentally friendly than hand-washing.

No human can even begin to approach the efficiency of the modern dishwasher, no matter what they tell you. (And that doesn't even bring up the sanitizing ability of a dishwasher. It can tolerate much higher temps than anyone's hands can.)

[notadmblnd]

22. Really? I never thought they were easier

it takes me 10 minutes to run a sink full to water and do the dinner dishes. As I put the meal on the table, I do the pots and pans. After dinner, the table is cleared, the plates and silver are washed and I'm done.

I did have a dish washer once, and I found rinsing the dishes, loading the dishes and waiting what seemed like over an hour for the damned noise to quit so they could be put away, was more trouble than it was worth.

Has automatic dish washing improved much over the years? Am I not getting something about the process that makes it easier?

[havocmom]

8. It was Memorex, or...

Was that glass just washed before cold juice was poured into it? Could have been thermal shock.

OR, sound waves. Seriously. The one inside a well insulated fridge did not break, the one outside the insulated fridge did. Could have been a sound blast above any frequency people can hear.

[iris5426]

15. That's a fun theory

I like it...

[havocmom]

23. was anyone using any electric appliances or tools at the time?

Anybody driving by the house right then? It's amazing how much 'noise' there is around that we don't hear. Sound can break glass.

[HereSince1628]

9. Our house disappears potato chips. Never takes the bag

just the chips. Very strange.

I've seen on television that some people have spots on the rug that appear from nowhere...

[hootinholler]

18. Mine does that with cookies!

I keep blaming my kids, but they deny it.

-Hoot

[Buzz Clik]

10. We had such glasses and threw them out after multiple, similar experiences.

They have horrible thermal properties -- they crack readily in the dishwasher in the Dry cycle, and the tend to crack when you pour in very cold liquids. I spent hours digging the brazilion broken shards out of the dishwasher.

My guess is that the glass was either warm when the juice was poured or it already had a small crack or two. It is quite possible for a crack to grow large enough such that the glass collapses under its own weight and the weight of the juice.

[Warpy]

11. Murphy's law

Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

The glass just had one temperature shock too many. She should be glad she didn't have the glass in her hands and up to her mouth when it happened.

[gollygee]

12. small crack, temperature change, probably other things can cause it too.

Yeah it can happen. Scary though.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

20. Tempered glass is strong, but when it fails, it fails catastrophically

The glass probably had a small defect, and the cooling from the OJ just pushed it over the edge.

[librechik]

25. Right--I've had that happen a few times to fireplace screens

quite spectacular--with or without fire.

Especially with.

[leftofthedial]

24. osama bin laden and al qaeda

they have a history of creating inexplicable destruction in the US

[Wizard777]

26. Heat differentials. I've never seen sound waves shatter a full glass.

But sound waves move more easily through liquid than air. So it could actually help the process.

[Eric Condon]

27. I think Jim, the Waco Kid, shot at it and she just didn't notice.

nt