How It Works

If I went to the beach and heated up the sand, would I be able to make glass?

- Jeff Jacobs

Absolutely you could. Most of the sand on a beach is made of silicon dioxide, and when this is melted it turns into a liquid. When this liquid cools it doesn’t turn back into sand, but glass, which is a cross between a liquid and solid that chemists call an amorphous solid. However, you’d need a temperatur­e far beyond a hot beach bonfire burning at 1,100 degrees Celsius to melt sand, which turns liquid at 1,700 degrees Celsius.

 ??  ?? Glass-blowing requires molten glass to cool just enough to shape it
Glass-blowing requires molten glass to cool just enough to shape it

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