Mondo Knows Facts
Glass is an amorphous solid, not a crystal
Glass atoms freeze in place without the repeating order of a crystal lattice When molten glass cools, its molecules lose the ability to rearrange before they can line up in an ordered lattice. The result is a rigid material with a random atomic arrangement, sometimes described as a frozen liquid. Old windows are thicker at one edge because of how they were made, not because the glass flowed. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: materials, glass, chemistry
Glass is an amorphous solid, not a crystal: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Glass atoms freeze in place without the repeating order of a crystal lattice. The figure is taken from Royal Society of Chemistry, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.