Last time this was discussed on HN, someone raised the artist's approach to failure as a rich space for discovery, which was nicely put by him at this point in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KT8PS6Zs4&t=1619s
I think it is contextual, but it's a useful approach in many cases: it's effectively a sunk cost vs value of information analysis: if you've already sunk most of the cost into something and there's a problem which means it isn't going to work, then the potentially valuable information from learning about the next steps is probably pretty cheap, and reduces the risk that the investment in the next attempt isn't wasted. On the other hand, if you know it's not going to work and the next steps involve a lot of extra time/material investment but aren't going to tell you much, then it's probably a good idea to throw the current attempt away and try again.
He shoots the Prince Rupert's drop with a bullet. The bullet wins. In high speed, you can see the bullet splat against the glass and break into shards, long before the glass breaks. Really neat.
The name alone, but even the description sounds like a special item in an RPG.
> These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties, such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged.
It's funny because you don't need the drop shape to demonstrate this at all. Any random piece of tempered glass demonstrates the same thing if you know where the stress is.
You can hit a shovel against the flat side of a piece of tempered glass and not break it because the shovel is too large & flat. But you chip the corner, or use a small tool like a punch break, and the whole thing will pop.
Now, use the edge of the shovel against the edge of the glass and you'll have a lot more luck breaking it.
I mean, I only said it could withstand a shovel's flat side and a good whack. I never tried shooting any glass, but I have personally had reason to whack a few tempered lites with a shovel when they wouldn't break and can personally attest to how surprisingly hard it can be compared to just chipping a corner against another piece of glass.
Another odd thing is that when two pieces chip at the corners, I've only ever seen one of them break. Somehow the other piece always seems to survive, though it normally gets scratched up enough that it's tossed out anyhow.
Not to the same extent, no, but you can still see it hit hard in one way and shatter under the slightest tap in another way which was all I was trying to say.
I mean, any means of applying force to a small area will make tempered glass explode. You just want to hit it with enough force on a small area.
The use punch breaks, which are like tiny ice picks with a flat handle, in the factory to do break tests to ensure that the glass is properly tempered. That will break it even when pressed down on the flat side of the glass.
Yes, that's why they always protect the corners with a metal frame or put them in a window, etc. Though doing edgework beforehand may help avoid that somewhat.
Two pieces on the conveyor out of the quench running into each other is probably the most common way to break them in the factory other than having them explode in the quench. They also break in people's hands when you chip the corner on the racks they're loaded into, which usually makes the unloaders jump when it happens, because they may be holding a 30"x70" piece of glass that gives them a shower.
Oh, and the damn stuff can just break spontaneously. It might be due to temperature changes in those cases, it's not like anyone can say, but every so often a lite sitting in a rack will just blow up even when nobody is near it, though it's quite rare. From what I recall, it most often happens in winter.
Source: I worked for an cut & temper/IG operation for quite a few years and saw everything myself.
Tempered glass certainly explodes with minimal damage done to it. I've had plenty of panes blow on me at the solar panel manufacturing facility I used to work in.
In the factory, they sometimes seem to just explode randomly when the pieces next to them are just fine. It might be some anomaly of how they got quenched and/or temperature changes, though. I remember it mostly happening in winter for whatever reason, so maybe a cold breeze got them? There's probably quite a contrast between the furnace and the cold air coming in around the loading docks.
Apparently if you use liquid soap instead of water you can get a drop with virtually no tail. Then the only way to really break it is by hitting it with a Nokia phone.
Learn about and see how it’s made – https://youtu.be/xe-f4gokRBs
Encasing a shattering drop in glass –https://youtu.be/C1KT8PS6Zs4
The process the team uses in the second video to freeze the break in glass is pretty awesome! (If you’re into that kind of thing)