Why can’t diamonds break car windows as easily as ceramic shards?
In: Physics
It would, assuming it was as large, as heavy, and as generally pointy as a say, a big chunk of a ceramic casing from the outside of a broken spark plug, which is where I assume your question came from. There’s nothing particularly special about ceramic other than weight, hardness, and pointyness.
But shockingly, few people use large hunks of diamond in order to break into cars to steal people’s junk.
They can.
Was helping a friend tear down an old Ford station wagon back in the early 80’s. While cleaning up he tossed one of the old hydraulic lifters into the back seat. When I say tossed I don’t mean a weak throw, I mean a gentle little underhand toss from 2 feet away. It bounced off the rear seat and went through the opposite window with hardly a sound. Breaking tempered automotive glass is surprisingly easy when using something that is hard and has a reasonably sharp edge. If aimed correctly you can pop a car window using nothing more than a center punch.
I thought diamond would do a good job at breaking tempered glass. Mostly its just concentrating the force, which is where broken shards of ceramic might shine as they can be incredibly sharp. But its also hardness, which we know diamond is very hard. Depending on the shape of the diamond I imagine it would be pretty effective, and especially so if it was designed for it.
Can you share where you read that it would not be as effective at breaking glass compared to ceramic? I am curious as well. Thanks!
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