Definition of Glass

The materials meaning of a glass is a uniform amorphous solid material, generally produced when a rightfully viscous molten material cools very quickly to below its glass transition temperature, thus not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form. A simple instance is when table sugar is melted and cooled quickly by dumping the liquid sugar onto a cold surface. The resulting solid is amorphous, not crystalline similar to the sugar was originally, which can be seen in its concordat fracture.

The word of glass comes from Latin glacies (ice) and corresponds to German Glass, M.E. glas, A.S. gales. Germanic tribes used the word gales to say amber, recorded by Roman historians as glaesum. Anglo-Saxons used the word glaer for amber.
The residue of this article will be concerned with a definite type of glass—the silica-based glasses in common make use of as a building, container or pretty material.

In its pure form, glass is a clear, relatively strong, hard-wearing, basically inert and biologically inactive material which can be shaped with very smooth and impervious surfaces. These pleasing properties lead to a great many uses of glass. Glass is, on the other hand, brittle and will break into sharp shards. These properties can be modified, or even changed completely, with the addition of other compounds or heat treatment.
Common glass is generally amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is the same chemical compound establish in quartz, or in its polycrystalline shape, sand.