Is Glass Liquid or Solid?

A controversy has erupted in many areas of science over the definition of glass. The old saying is that glass is actually a liquid because of windows from old buildings (built 150 years or more ago) have glass in it that is thicker at the bottom than at the top. The theory is that the "liquid" moves ever so slightly down from the pull of gravity, until when we see it today, the glass is thin where the gravity is pulling from. But is it really that simple? Is that even true?

There are a few things that have to be looked at before we can make any assumptions.

First, there's the properties of liquids and solids on the molecular level. Solids contain their molecules in such a way that looks like a lattice, with a pattern than looks the same no matter where you look at it and which is why solids are firm. Liquids contain their molecules in such a way to have no structure; the molecules are free to roam around, which is why liquids cannot be picked up by themselves. It is this molecular structure that usually shows the difference between a liquid and solid. Glass, however, is unique in this area. Glass has a crystalline lattice for its molecules just like a solid does, but the difference is that instead of it being a perfectly structured lattice like ice would be, it is misshapen. So in one argument, it is rigid like a solid, but it is random like a liquid.

Molecular Lattice of a Solid

Molecular Structure of Glass

Second to consider is viscosity. Viscosity is the measurement of a liquid's resistance to flow. For example, vegetable oil has a higher viscosity than water. Temperature has a high impact on viscosity also, because typically the warmer a liquid is, the lower its viscosity. The phrase "slower than molasses in winter" is used to show how slow something is because the viscosity of molasses in a cold environment is very high. The interesting thing is that sometimes viscosity has the tendency to prevent solidifying a liquid. In water's case, when water goes before its freezing point (or alternatively its melting point for ice), it crystallizes and becomes a solid. However, in some cases, viscosity can prevent a liquid from crystallizing. In those cases, the liquid is considered to be "supercooled" and remain liquid past the freezing/melting point. In these supercooled liquids, if the viscosity rises high enough, the liquid gets thicker and thicker, but never crystallizes, and instead is considered to be an amorphous solid. In these amorphous solids, the liquids retain some rigidity.

Third to consider is the different methods of making glass. In the glass that most people assume to be a liquid because of the change of thickness from top to bottom, you would find it to be very old - from the medieval times through the nineteenth century. Because it is old, most people assume that this glass process of being pulled down by gravity over hundreds of years is the way that it happens. If indeed that was true, then it would be a process that couldn't be proven in a lab. In actuality, the method of glass-making has changed since then. Back then, the method was the crown glass method, which involved a lump of molten glass that is rolled, blown, expanded, flattended, then spun into a disk before it was cut into the desired shapes. The problem with this was two-fold: it limited the size a pane of glass could be, and it didn't distribute the glass evenly so many pieces of glass had a thicker side of glass than another side. Even though there have been other glass-making procedures, only recently has the float glass method been used, which ensures an even thickness of glass.

So, when you combine all that together, it still is an interesting debate. The method of making glass in history provided uneven glass which accounts for the differing thicknesses of the glass, so that should have dismissed the idea of the solid vs. liquid debate. But it doesn't because of the molecular structures and viscosity elements to the argument makes the debate even more interesting.

And once again, the question remains so it is asked again: is glass a liquid or solid? Many people (prominent scientists even) still debate that to this day. In the end, one could call glass a solid for the simple fact that it is rigid and feels solid. But also, one could call glass a supercooled liquid because of its extremely high viscosity. But then, it could also be called a solid because it has a crystalline structure. But it's an amorphic structure that's characteristic of supercooled liquids. So, one could call it either a solid or a liquid, but it's not a liquid because of the "thickness differentiation" theory. Some people have even called glass a fourth state of matter that's neither solid nor liquid but having properties of both.

Either way, I think it's just semantics. And until the scientists come up with an exact definition, we can debate all day long what it is and isn't.

Bet you didn't know that!

How Clean Is Your Money?

Has your mother ever told you not to stick money in your mouth, because "you don't know where that's been!" Have you ever really thought about where money's been and what's on it? Well let's think about it for short time. Cashflow trades hands all the time, and certainly can trade hands many times in one day. People from all over the world could possibly have touched the dollars and change in your pocket. If you take out hygiene customs from culture to culture or even from our own, then consider the sick who have touched your money before you acquired it. Starting to feel a little queasy yet?

There have been several studies to look at what exactly is on money and why it's there. Back in 1905, Dr. Thomas Darlington (the Health Commissioner of New York City) made a report and claimed that dirty money should be removed from circulation for the purpose of public health. The Federal Reserve itself does a test on bills it receives. The average lifespan of a paper US bill is about 18 months, but depending on its cleanliness will determine if it lasts longer or shorter. When a bill goes back into the Federal Reserve, it gets tested on a scale of 0-16. New bills receive a score of 16. Any returning bill that receives a score of less than 12 will be shredded. The Reserve calls a bill's dirtiness the "soil content". This test only tests if something is on the bill, but it won't say what is on the bill. That takes science teams and researchers.

In 1972, the Journal of the American Medical Association found that there were some harmful germs on money. They acquired 200 dollars and coins, and found things like fecal bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus on 13% of coins and 42% of the dollars. The University of San Francisco conducted their own test by obtaining coins and dollars from restaurants, vendors, newsstands, and post offices, and found that of the 113 examples, 18% of the coins and 7% of the bills had things like E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

The good news? Most viruses don't penetrate the skin, so unless you have a cut, then if they are on your hands alone, then you probably won't get sick. This is why washing your hands is so important with money. Once you rub your nose, mouth, or eyes, then the germs come into contact with tissue that can help facilitate the virus. But if you wash your hands first, then your likelihood of sickness is dramatically reduced.

There was another study conducted about the "soil content" from country to country, and it found that poorer nations had much more soil content than richer nations. The findings are still disputed because some claim the reason for this is basic hygiene practices of the countries, but others say it has to do with the economic state of the countries.

The other major factor in determining a bill's cleanliness is how well bacteria can colonize on money, and what that means, basically, is what is the dollar made of. Dollars that have many folds and creases (which is also a good indication of how old the bill is) is more susceptible to having colonies of bacterium growing. The University of Ballarat in Australia concluded in a study that the printing material in money is responsible for most of why money is dirty. For example, a British pound note is more likely to have bacteria than Australia's bills. Why? Because Britain uses cotton fibers for their money, which is much more fibrous and filled with holes for the bacteria to grow; whereas the Australian dollar is a polymer-based currency, and it is much more flat and harder for bacteria to gain a foothold. This isn't to say that all Australian currency is clean and Britain's is all dirty, but studies claim that with cotton-based currency, the bacteria have a longer chance of breeding and colonizing than on polymer-based currency.


Close up of British cotton-based currency



Close up of Australia's polymer-based currency

 But wait, that's not all that's on the money! There has been yet another study in regards to currency and Bisphenol A (BPA), which is a industrial chemical that's been used in containers since the 1960's. Studies on BPA to human contact has been primarily with regard to food; however, BPA is showing up on money. BPA is toxic, and presents health risks to people if consumed. So, why is it on currency? It's from receipts. Many receipts have BPA in the ink on receipt paper, and the BPA rubs off onto money, which then comes into contact with people. In a small study from 2010, 22 bills were tested, and 21 of them had traces of BPA on them. It's yet another thing to think about when handling money!

This is an ever-changing research project for many people all across the world. It'll be interesting to see what changes are made to money to help keep it clean. One method that many people call for is the end of physical money and to go exclusively to electronic funds. We'll see what happens!

And one more note of expendablenlightenment: in Japan, there are "clean ATMs". These are ATMs just like anywhere else, but the difference is that the yen is rolled between rollers for 1/10 of a second at a temperature of 392°F to kill off any bacteria.

Bet you didn't know that!

Rankings Are Ranked By the Ranker

In 1913, a prominent geographer named Ellsworth Huntington sent a letter to 213 scholars from 27 countries. His goal was to create "a map showing the distribution of the higher elements of civilization throughout the world." In their decisions, factors would be things like abilities to create new concepts and put them into practice, a sense of self-control, high standards of honesty and morality, power of initiative, and so on. Each contributor was given a list of 185 regions of the world with instructions of ranking them 1-10.

The interesting thing about this story was the 25 members who were American were asked to do the same thing for regions of the US, but on a scale of 1-6. To give you an idea of some of the results, Southern Alaska came back last with a score of 1.5, and Arizona and New Mexico was second to last with a score of 1.6. Massachusetts came in first with a perfect 6.0, while Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York tied for second with 5.8. Huntington went on to say that the "citadel of American civilization" was New England and New York. He published his findings in a book called "Civilization and Climate" in 1915.

You're probably wondering "why is this interesting?"

The book was published by Yale University Press, and Huntington himself was a professor of geography at Yale University, which is located in New Haven, Connecticut. Of all 25 American contributors, there are a few who received special recognition, and they were from the following states: 2 from Connecticut, 5 from New York, 1 from Rhode Island, 4 from Massachusetts, and 1 from Pennsylvania. Huntington mentions in his book that he couldn't find anyone in the US who would contribute west of Minnesota, or south of the Ohio River.

If you're catching the meaning, only people of the Northeast contributed to this undertaking, and the Northeast is who scored the highest. This is a lesson in ranking systems: typically in ranking systems, the way things rank has more to do with who's doing the ranking as opposed to the information actually being ranked. It goes back to that old saying "History is told by the victor." Statistics can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say, but in this case, no one deliberately had a motive of naming the Northeast the best part of the US, but since all the members were from there, that's what the end result became. It would be interesting what would've happened if there would've been members from all over the US.

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Who Are the Valentines?

February 14 is celebrated by many a romantic couple and embraced by many a flower, card, and jewelry company. But who was St. Valentine? Patron saint of love? Patron saint of giving romance? Patron saint of buying and giving overpriced flowers, cards, and jewelry?

First, one has to figure out who he was, and the odd thing is that there is more than one. There are some disputes as to how many, but for sure there are two: Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred around 269 AD and buried in Via Flaminia. Valentine of Terni became Bishop of Interamna around 197 AD and was martyred under Emperor Aurelian.

The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions a third Valentine who was martyred in Africa on February 14, but there aren't hardly any historical mentions of this third one.

Romance was not a part of St. Valentine (any of them) before the 14th Century. It was after this time that romance began to creep into the St. Valentine story, but by then, memories of differing St. Valentines had been forgotten, and only just one St. Valentine was remembered.

In Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (compiled in 1260), the story of St. Valentine was first written. According to this version, Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Emporer Claudius II. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a conversation with him, attempting to turn him to Roman paganism, but Valentine equally tried to convert Claudius to Christianity, which infurriated Claudius and caused Valentine to be executed. Before he was executed, he was jailed and healed the blind daughter of his jailer.

Since that time, in the modern times the St. Valentine lore has been broadened to include a story that includes a little more basis of love. Claudius II put in place a law requiring that men do not marry, because he felt that married men make weak soldiers. The priest Valentine broke the law by secretly performing marriages for young men. And when Claudius found out, he had Valentine thrown in jail.

The most recent story about Valentine deals with his own love. The story goes that on the night he was to be executed, he wrote the first valentine card to someone sometimes named his "beloved", to the daughter of the jailer (the girl he'd healed), or both (being the same person). This note was "from your Valentine". This story, however, has absolutely no historical basis whatsoever, and is most likely just a modern tale for cards.

Either way, when you think of February 14 as Valentine's Day, don't forget the men who the day was formed after, who really had nothing to do with romance. Sorry to break your hearts!

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The Spruce Goose

What is the largest plane ever built that flew? I bet you're thinking of something like the 747 or maybe a huge carrier plane like an Airbus. The key is the phrase "that flew", because we could make a plane that is a mile long, but if it didn't fly, then it doesn't count in this. But now that, you're thinking about this, I'm sure that whether you were thinking it was some commercial plane or a military plane, you were probably thinking about something made in the last ten years, when technology is at its peak from all of recorded history. The truth is, the largest plane to have flown made it's flight in 1947, and was nicknamed the "Spruce Goose". The Spruce Goose was actually a slang term penned by the press. The plane was really the Hughes H-4 Hercules and was designed and partially funded by Howard Hughes.

This story begins in 1942 when the War Department needed to transport men and material to Britain to aid in the war effort. The original design for this massive plane was created by Henry J. Kaiser, who teamed with Howard Hughes. A contract was given to the Hughes-Kaiser partnership, and the plane project was designated HK-1, after Hughes and Kaiser. There were all sorts of designs added and changed, and because of the mammoth size the plane's design ended up calling for, and because of the shortage of metal, the HK-1 design ended up calling for the plane to be mostly made of wood. As the time crept on, Kaiser grew most frustrated by the lack of essential metals (such as aluminum) and Hughes' insistence that everything be absolutely perfect. Kaiser soon left the project, but Hughes continued without him, now calling it the H-4 Hercules. The H-4 was to be a water-based plane, so it somehow had to get into the water. A massive hangar was built around the H-4's construction, which included a ramp into the water. (Another note, this massive building became the US's first climate-controlled building.)

The project went on so long and was so massive that in 1947, Hughes was called to testify in front of the Senate for the usage of government funds. While on a break from the hearings, Hughes returned to California for some tests of the Hercules. The press turned up, and some were even allowed on board while the Hercules taxied through the harbor. With Hughes himself at the controls, and the pressure of a Senate committee in his mind, Hughes pushed the Hercules to takeoff, remaining approximately 70 feet above the water, and flying at 135 mph while remaining airborn for a mile. With the successful flight completed, Hughes's detractors silenced, and his overuse of government funds hearings ended. The Hercules was not needed by 1947, since the war ended two years earlier.



Hercules in flight, 1947.

The Hercules remained flight-ready in a hangar with 300 employees watching over it until 1962 when the staff was downgraded to 50. After Hughes died in 1976, all remaining employees were let go. After a few moves, the Hercules is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

The specifications of the Hercules are insanely massive:

• Length - 218 ft. 8 in.
• Wingspan - 319 ft. 11 in.
• Height - 79 ft. 4 in.
• Loaded weight - 400,000 lbs.
• Each wing featured 4 engines, and each engine had 4 blades, with the propellor diameter 17 ft. 2 in.

If you are interested in what is the largest airplane that is in service, that would be the Antonov An-225, which was built in 1988, and has been in service ever since. Not as large as the Hercules, but larger than any other plane currently in service.



Gold - H-4 Hercules
Green - Antonov An-225
Pink - Airbus A380-800
Blue - Boeing 747

Just to give you an idea of how massive this plane is, it's landing gear has 32 wheels.



One other note about the Hercules. The press dubbed the plane the "Spruce Goose" and the "Flying Lumberyard". Even though the plan had large amounts of wood used in its construction, it wasn't made of spruce. It was actually a laminated birch.

Bet you didn't know that!



Dash Boards

Cars all have dashboards now. But have you ever really thought that word? Dash-board? Strange word, right? In many instances, where a word comes from is quite simple but dates to a time when certain practices were more common.

The dashboard was originally on sleighs. This was back before automobiles were invented. When the horses pulled the sleigh, they would kick up all sorts of mud and muck into the driver's face and sometimes on the rest of the sleigh's occupants. To hamper this, a piece of leather or wood was placed in such a fashion up front to stop the debris. Most of the debris was caused by the horses' dashing, and the board prevented the debris. Some people believe that the dashboard came from that notion of "the horses dash, and the board prevents it", hence a dash-board. However, it's more accurate if you look at the definition of dash in the older meaning of the word: to strike or smash often violently, to bespatter, to splash. So, it's more accurate to say it's a board that takes splashes and strikes.

The placement of the board hasn't changed much, so when automobiles came along, the board was used to also help prevent the same debris from being kicked up by the road and wheels (since the first automobiles didn't have windshields). The name stuck, and with each passing year, the dashboard stayed, but the original meaning was lost. The complexity of the dashboard changed with padding being introduced in the 1940's and common practive by the 1970's, and airbags becoming a common addition by the 1990's. The time between the 1940's-1960's saw all sorts of different designs of instruments being added to the dashboards, which are now relatively similar in function and inclusion.

However, the dashboard itself is an old tradition, dating back a long, long time, when our cars were just horses and sleds.

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Hedy Lamarr - Inventor?

In Vienna in 1914, a girl named Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born. In her late teens, she studied at a famous acting school in Berlin. She made her first movie in 1933, which was quite scandalous for its time, with a heavily edited version premiering in the US. Her beauty was recognized immediately, and she was signed by MGM in 1937. Louis B. Mayer (head of MGM) gave her the last name of Lamarr, and thus began the career of actress Hedy Lamarr.

Hedy Lamarr led a somewhat typical Hollywood lifestyle. She married six times in her life, and had a couple children. She had scandals, such as her first movie and reported shoplifting in the 1950's. She was best known in America for her roles in such films as "Algiers" (1938) and "Samson and Delilah" (1949). Some people have considered her the most beautiful of Hollywood's leading ladies of the era; however, she was outshined by actresses such as Ingrid Bergman and Katherine Hepburn. In 1966, she published her autobiography.

The thing that separated Hedy Lamarr from just about all other actresses was her first marriage. She first married in 1933 to Friedrich Mandl, who was the chairman of Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik, an armaments firm. Friedrich specialized in grenades and shells, but began work on military aircraft in the mid-1930's. Lamarr learned many things from her first husband in this area. Their marriage ended by 1937, so she moved to Hollywood to try her luck in the movies. While living there in 1940, she began a conversation with her neighbor one day: George Antheil, a man born in Trenton, NJ, but moved to Europe to be a pianist, eventually returning to the US and settling in Hollywood as a film composer. Lamarr told Antheil that she was thinking about leaving Hollywood to devote her time to the National Inventors Council in Washington DC. They discussed the idea about radio controlled torpedoes, and she brought up her idea about "frequency hopping", which was a new concept at the time. Antheil explained how he thought that could work, and the two were off on their road to an invention. The analogy Antheil used was some of the choreography and musical stylings he'd used while working in Europe. Soon, the idea included a paper similar to piano-player rolls, and in the end it allowed for 88 frequencies, just like the 88 keys on a piano.

In December 1940, Lamarr and Antheil wrote to the National Inventors Council and gave their description of their device. The chairman of the council suggested they continue their work, and with the help of a professor at the California Institute of Technology, they had a patent granted to them on August 11, 1942. The invention was the first of its kind: it allowed for an airplane to stear a torpedo while high in the air. The Navy wasn't as interested in the invention, and turned its back on the invention and its inventors. Lamarr raised funds for the project and Antheil did his best trying to convince the Navy that the project could work. Ultimately, the invention wasn't used, and it wasn't until 1957 that the idea was picked up again by some engineers from the Sylvania Electronic Systems Division in Buffalo, NY. In 1962, the device (now electronic instead of using paper rolls) was used in ships blockading Cuba. Lamarr/Entheil's patent had expired by this time.

Most patents that have been granted since that time, whether related to radar jamming or not, have been compared with Lamarr and Antheil's patent as their basis. The idea and the device created were twenty years ahead of their time, even if the physical structure of it was somewhat quaint. Even though the Navy shunned the device, it eventually ended up including a version of it in some way later on.

So, this typical actress of foreign origin, who led a normal Hollywood life, turned out to have invented something that ended up being a major ahead-of-its-time weapon.

Bet you didn't know that!