Why Is Glass Transparent?

Many questions may come to our minds about glass. One of them is why glass is transparent while many solids are opaque. This is related to the state of matter. This situation can be explained as follows; Although seen as a solid, glass is actually a liquid substance.

The atomic structure of glass is viscosity¹. For this reason, glass is fluid, but it is not possible to observe this fluidity. Because of this property, it is called an amorphous solid. That is, glass is a liquid that looks like a solid.

During production, the glass solidifies by preserving its amorphous structure and does not lose its liquid properties. Thus, it solidifies in liquid form. At the same time, the energy required to excite an electron in glass is higher than that of visible light. Therefore, visible light passes through the glass without interaction, and therefore glass is transparent.

1.    Viscosity is a term that expresses the fluidity of liquids.

 

22.06.2022