
Mystery of Prince Rupert's Drop at 130,000 fps - Smarter Every Day 86
About this video
Smarter Every Day films Prince Rupert's drops, tempered glass drops, in high-speed slow motion at 130,000 fps. It shows how the drop's heavy internal stress lets the head survive hits while the tail shatters the whole thing.
Why it appears in the archive
Recommended across Prince Rupert's drop and glass threads for its striking high-speed footage.
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From the Hacker News discussion
Interesting. I love glass blowing. Maybe I'll learn about it some day. Borosilicate and aluminosilicate cookware is actually pretty tolerant of chipping, because pieces tend to be thoroughly annealed. Tempered soda-lime, on the other hand, is not, so it has tremendous internal stress that makes it much tougher than borosilicate, but once it does chip it's liable to shatter explosively. Like Prince Rupert's drops. Hey, you want to see something cool? You'll appreciate this since you work with the stuff. Go to 2 min 45 sec in the video at [VIDEO] . High speed video of one of these things exploding. Kinda blew my mind.
Read original comment ↗Also discussed and illustrated in "The Curious Properties of a Molten Glass Blob Dropped in Cold Water" [LINK] The story linked is just a blog wrapper on a "Smarter Every Day" episode, which is definitely worth watching. Smarter Every Day: [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗You'd just see some blinding white light for a few seconds and then maybe nothing else for the rest of your life. Our human eyes and brains limit us from perceiving even everyday things with the majesty they deserve. Even popping water balloons looks amazing in high speed video. On YouTube, there is a community of people doing silly things with high speed cameras that makes for stimulating watching: Smarter Every Day: weird glass phenomenon [VIDEO] Smarter Every Day: cat righting itself in midair [LINK] Lots of high speed videos [LINK]
Read original comment ↗Shout out to Destin from SmarterEveryDay for his love of PRDs. Learn about and see how it’s made – [VIDEO] Encasing a shattering drop in glass – [LINK] 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)
Read original comment ↗1. Drop molten glass in a bucket of water. 2. Let it cool down, take it out. 3. Hammer the head of the drop and it won't break. 4. Nick the thin tail and the whole thing will explode . Here's a GIF - [LINK] Here's the vid - [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗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 [VIDEO] * 2016-12-29 [LINK] * 2017-04-26 [LINK] * 2017-04-30 [LINK]
Read original comment ↗wow, I literally just had a very similar idea but what inspired me to think of it was the phenomenon of Prince Rupert's Drops [VIDEO] I commented on the quantamagazine article but it's awaiting moderator approval
Read original comment ↗The strength that those stresses add is mind boggling. Smarter Every Day[0] did a video on Prince Rupert's Drops, which have similar internal stresses, and he demonstrates their strength by shooting a drop with a .22 rifle. [0] [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗