Why glass explodes if it’s exposed to a sudden temperature change.
In: Chemistry
Glass is a strong, but brittle material. It does not want to bend, dent or stretch.
When an object is heated or cooled, it expands or contracts respectively. If this is done perfectly, you just end up with a slightly different size, but in the real world, there are variations in temperature that introduce stress into the piece as it doesn’t fit its own structure.
If those variations are significant enough, the piece overcomes its strength and deforms. For metal, the piece simply twists and warps to the new shape, but for glass, the material does not tolerate that warping, and instead the stress builds internally until the piece breaks. Because of the strength of the glass, a lot of energy has built up before this break, meaning there’s a lot of force released in the break, causing the glass to “explode” catastrophically.
You can compare the behavior to clay ceramics, which are not as strong, but still exhibit brittle behavior: Under the same circumstances, a metal pot will warp, a clay vessel will crack, and a glass vessel will shatter.
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