The Amazing Properties and Uses of Glass

For hundreds of years, humans have been using and loving glass. It’s a remarkable material — created by melting sand or other minerals at high temperatures before suddenly cooling them back down. Glass has no regular structure, but it can be shaped, colored, and decorated in a near infinite number of ways to make beautiful things.

Hard, brittle, resistant to the weather and corrosion. These are just a few things that make glass tough as nails. But when it comes to usefulness, it takes the cake. For example, you could use glass to transmit light, reflect light or even refract light depending on how thick it is or what kind of surface it has. It can conduct heat or electricity just as well as insulate them depending on what’s added. And most importantly — it can be tempered or given strength by heating and cooling it.

With all of these properties combined, glass has become the perfect tool for architects — who use it to make windows, doors among many other things; artists — who use stained glass to create beautiful works like beads; scientists — who use thermometers as well as telescopes and microscopes; engineers — who pack them inside light bulbs and lasers; doctors — who make syringes out of this stuff along with test tubes.

And from an environmental perspective there’s even more reason to love glass!