
Scientists solve 400-year-old mystery of Prince Rupert's drops - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-year-old-mystery-prince-rupert.html
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kahirsch
The Smarter Every Day YouTube channel has done several high-speed videos about
Prince Rupert's drops, including a couple released just last week.

* 2013-03-22 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs)

* 2016-12-29 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24q80ReMyq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24q80ReMyq0)

* 2017-04-26 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3FkAUbetWU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3FkAUbetWU)

* 2017-04-30 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5MORochIDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5MORochIDw)

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sebtoast
Just wanted to point out that he's pretty active on Reddit

[https://www.reddit.com/r/SmarterEveryDay/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SmarterEveryDay/)

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mannykannot
calling it a "400-year-old mystery" is nonsense; the mechanism has been
understood and exploited in heat-tempered glass for decades [1].

Ironically, this article fails to explain the origin of the forces on which
the properties depend, which is due to the slow-cooling interior continuing to
contract after the surface has hardened. I had read somewhere that the slow-
cooling interior tends to find a more compact structure than the exterior, as
the rapidly-cooled exterior tends to get locked into the expanded structure
exhibited above its transition temperature. I have not found a source saying
this, but the behavior above and below the transition temperature is described
here [2].

1\. [http://www.breakglass.org/How-is-glass-
made.html](http://www.breakglass.org/How-is-glass-made.html)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_transition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_transition)

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xupybd
Could you create a glass shape as strong as the drop, but without the easy to
break tail?

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andrewjrhill
Take a whole bunch of them and stick the tails in the center, to form an
unbreakable sphere.

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lowtolerance
Kind of like a Rat King of Prince Rupert drops.

