: Why is it easier to break a big glass marble ball by dropping it compare to a small glass marble ball ?
In: Physics
It also has to do with the way micro-defects propagate. In a brittle material, unavoidable defects and gaps, invisible to the naked eye, are omni-present. And once they start propagating due to stress, it’s non-reversible. A bigger piece of glass is just statistically way WAY more likely to have a weak point than a small piece. It’s the same reason why you can have a large ceramic or glass slab/plate and shatter it easier with less force compared to smaller pieces.
ELI5: Bigger things have more tiny invisible cracks compared to smaller things, and that makes it break easier.
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