Get the latest tech news

Is it possible to build a perfectly spherical prince Ruperts drop (2015)

Prince Rupert's Drops are glass objects created by dripping molten glass into cold water. While the outside of the drop quickly cools, the inside remains hot for a longer time. When it eventually c...

Silica glass, as is common with other ceramic materials, exhibits unstable crack propagation when its fracture strength is exceeded by its stress state. The sphere emits radiation, cooling the surface more rapidly than the interior (or so we hope), and the glass is tempered, resulting in a Prince Rupert's Space Drop. I expect that you could at least shorten the tail by cutting the gooey glass - but there's a possibility that the result would explode on cooling, as suggested in nivag's comment.

Get the Android app