Eli5: Why does ceramic break tempered glass so easily.
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Normally, when you apply a lot of force on an object with a sharp tip, the tip will bend. For example, if you try to stab glass with the tip of a kitchen knife, the knife will most likely just bend (obviously don’t try this at home, very high chance of injury)
Ceramic is very non-bendy. This means that when you use a sharp ceramic tip to hit a piece of glass, all of the force gets transferred to the glass (at a very small point) instead of being lost to the bending of the tip. A lot of force on a small point will punch through glass and shatter it, kinda like how bullets work.
In addition, as others have mentioned, ceramic is harder than glass which can allow it to slice into the glass, giving it a better ‘bite’ into the glass instead of just slipping off like a softer (lower Mohs scale material) would do. However this isn’t a full explanation. For example, bullets can shatter glass despite being lower on the Mohs scale.
Diamond is also harder than glass, and can slice glass, but it will shatter before the glass will. Ceramic is much more shatter-resistant than diamond and will stay intact long enough to transfer most of its force into the glass.
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