Science rules!

Today's bit of nerdiness has to do with glass. I found this image on Make (a blog about building and making things) a little while back and decided I wanted to share it.

This is called a "Prince Rupert's Drop", and is a piece of molten glass dropped into cold water. The outside cools much faster than the inside and contracts. This means there is an extreme amount of energy trapped in the glass. However, because of its structure, the fat part of the drop is extremely strong and can be hit with a hammer without breaking. The tail of the drop is extremely fragile, though, and if you damage the tail in any way, the whole thing explodes. Pretty freaking awesome, I'd say. Here's a 2 1/2 minute video from Youtube that shows it more dynamically. The best part is about half-way through when they break one in a plastic jar so you can watch the explosion happen.



P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can give the source of the title for this post.