Glass Education &
Videos
Below is a list of glass related information and video clips that we have prepared and collected to for the general science enthusiast. Some of the material we have prepared, some has been provided by other researchers and some are simply links to other great resources we have found on the web. Please let us know if you have other good resources to add.
Sugar Glass - Exploring glass science through hard candy
The materials below can provide the student with a variety of opportunities to explore aspects of glass science through a experiments with candy glass, an unflavored variety of the familiar “hard candy”. The candy is made from common kitchen ingredient including cane sugar (sucrose), corn syrup and water. The experiment introduce the student to properties of the glass state, how to make their own glass-like materials and interesting experiments from fiber pulling to refractive index, from crystallization kinetics to measiring the glass transition temperature by thermal analysis - all from the kitchen lab.
Intro to Glass and Sugar
Glass Experiments
( video of
lecture with candy glass making and fiber pulling activity
by Bill Heffner, IMI-NFG, Aug. 2007)
` Sugar
Glass demo (46 minutes, real
media video file)
How to Make Candy
Glass - with Simple Recipe
(pdf by Bill Heffner, IMI-NFG )
Candy
glass recipe & instructions
Making
Sugar Glass at home Video (Bill Heffner) (new 2008)
Candy
Glass at the University Lecture (H. Jain)
More on Candy Glass
Learning
the Principles of Glass Science from Candy Making
(a ppt of experiment by Himanshu and Isha
Jain)
Sugar
glass fiber drawing video (requires real player)
This is a short video on drawing
glassy fibers from candy made from sucrose, corn syrup and water. The video emphasizes the importance of having
the right temperature to draw fibers.
Fiber
Drawing Presentation - including a Core-Clad Double Crucible Method
(ppt with video by Tara Schneider, IMI REU 2005)
Measuring
Refractive index of Candy Glass
(ppt with video by Tara Schneider, IMI REU 2005)
Measuring
Densities of Candy Glassess
(pdf with video by Sean Kelly, IMI REU 2006)
A
study of Crystallization of Sugar Glasses
This pdf shows how the proportion of sucrose to corn syrup
effects
the tendency of a sugar glass to crystallize.
Surface
Crystallization Rate of Sugar Glasses (student presentation)
A quantitative experiment for the home or high school lab.
This
student’s presentation on her Sugar Crystallization Project won awards
at the 2007 Pennsylvania Jr.
Academy of Science as well as the Delaware
Valley Science Fair
A
Crystallization Primer - with Nucleation and Growth (new 2008)
A pdf by Bill Heffner on the basic concepts
Home Built Temperature Controlled Chamber (new 2008)
A low cost apparatus for temperature control
made forma light bulb, coffee cans and a dimmer switch enable students to
perform a variety of experiments.
Study of Nucleation of Sugar
A student presentation from 2008 science
competition at PA Jr. Academy of Science
Home Built DTA
for Measuring Glass Transition (new 2008)
A
quantitative experiment for the home or high school lab
HowToBuild a DTA Apparatus - Part 1 (pdf) (new 2008)
A more
lengthy description of how to build the DTA as well as some results for a stearic acid reference sample and the Tg
of some candy glass samples.
The Glass Transition and the DTA (in preparation) (new 2008)
Glass Fracture - Understanding the
science around us
From broken windows to auto crash scenes, most of us already have observed some of the unique features characteristic of the “glass fracture”. In the materials below explores and explains some of these familiar observations as well as some of the techniques that scientists are using to improve the strength and safety of glass.
Glass Fracture from Sandia
Labs
Sandia Presentation on Glass Fracture and Strengthening
by Dr. Jill Glass, Sandia Laboratories
This pdf presentation illustrates example of glass fracture and discussed strengthening through ion exchange methods.
Glass fracture videos from Sandia:
This video provides a powerful illustration of the enormous improvement in strength (and flexural extent) possible from modifying the glass surface. This video was provided by Jill Glass of Sandia National Laboratories.
Exploding window Video - Sandia
This video illustrated the danger one faces from a simple glass window during an explosion and the highlights the concern for improving the way ion which glass fractures.
The video was made at New Mexico Tech for Sandia National Laboratories.
Glass Fracture from
Some interesting information on brittle fracture can be
found on
PSU video of cracks forming glass surface during flex testing
(This link from Prof. Green’s website requires QuickTime™ Player )
Rupert's drop - This video from Museum of Glass in
International Collaboration on Glass
Mechanics (ICGM)
Glass Strength and Flaws and ICGM site by C.R.'Chuck' Kurkjian
provides a nice paper presented by Kurkjian and W.R. (Bill) Prindle
at the 1st International Congress on Ceramics in
Glass making at
Return to IMI Home Page Learning Library Page ver 043008
