Why is glass transparent? - Mark Miodownik
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- čas přidán 3. 02. 2014
- View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/why-is-glas...
If you look through your glasses, binoculars or a window, you see the world on the other side. How is it that something so solid can be so invisible? Mark Miodownik melts the scientific secret behind amorphous solids.
Lesson by Mark Miodownik, animation by Provincia Studio.
I remember asking this to a teacher many years ago but they couldn't answer, glad I finally got an answer.
As a teacher, this video and its information are now in my back pocket for future students who ask :)
We could have Googled
@@shivam7156 can’t google in class
Sameeeeee i can rest now hahahaha
Me too
"Featureless and invisible" man i never knew me and glass had so much in common
I'll bet you were thinking of including your comment as well. I liked it! 👍
glass in not invisible.. it atom are unstable that why you can look throught but we also remake it to be hard enough that you can drop them...
Bruh I found my kindred spirit XD
Deeeeeeeep.
except mirror is functional
It feels all the more incredible how certain plastics can be transparent, flexible, durable and lightweight at the same time!
TED-ED is the only channel through which I get education , being a student , I get confused to study books or help others under the time period. Then, I get upset when people laugh at me for being unknowingly uneducated for surrounding, everyday items I use. Because, I don’t know their significance. Often feeling useless and non-featured, same as mirror, makes me emotional sometimes but I am overcoming with it, with this channel, with a confidence of ‘try to be at pinnacle’. Thank for all of it.
Best thing i took from this video: Glass protects you from UV light.
UPDATE: Normal glass only protects you from some of the UV light.
+Chase K True, but polycarbonate or polyurethane do a better job of it.
so make a glass suit
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+Chase K Now for a glass-based sun screen lotion...........
Me too :)
Happiness is like a glass. It's there, but you won't know until it's broken.
*DEEP*
S3P50R Ş6B6N
*I feel u bro...*
So deep
This is my today's Whatsapp Status
Wowowowowwwww....
You should write poems.
I’ve often wondered how the ingredients for glass becomes invisible , at 76 I finally get it explained thank you
3:50
"... featureless and invisible, we forget its even there"
My life story. I feel you glass 😭
What invention lets you see straight through a wall?
THE WINDOW
Good one
A hole ;)
Sivan Sharma, holes weren't invented though.
“To the wall” is the first thing I thought of.
What is wrong with me?
If it's a glass wall, it's glass. If it's every thing else, it's nothing.
Wow, the question is not _"Why is glass transparent?"_ more than _"Why is not everything else transparent?"_ Neat, though.
#TedEd #science #glass
Why theres no comments!
Why transparent things are transparent?
yeah. how about plastic ?
@@omidaafif4150 Anything could be transparent if cooled fast enough from liquid state to solid. Even metal in theory could be trandparent, but it is impossible in real world to cool it that fast.
@@alsto8298
If we not cool fast the glass, den will glass become non-transparent?
I hope you people realize how much your videos are appreciated. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for doing what you do. I will be making a donation to help advance your cause.
"sometimes we even forget that its really there"
me: looking at my fingerprint covered window
Me: Thinking this guy is too lazy to clean his window, and is so proud of his laziness that he worked this fact into an asinine CZcams comment.
@@HangTimeDeluxe hahahha
looking at my dog nose printed windows...
@@HangTimeDeluxe 😂😂
that last sentence really made me think.
Just like electricity have merge into the fabric of out life, the next step will be the abundant access of the internet, and computer chips that will be so abundant we will begin to forget that it is still there.
***** I believe we will begin to fight for our right for free WiFi, In taiwan it is free.
The internet should not be taken advantage of through bills and limitation, either poor or rich, we all need it, it have became an essential part of our everyday life, sooner or later internet will be abundant and free.
When ideas are abundant and free it is bound for everyone, making it limited for certain people, it will only begin to take our right away.
Jimmy Khann You do realize that to deliver internet access to people there has to be physical lines connected to servers hosted in buildings and much more. Don't forget electricity to power those buildings. Also, someone has to monitor and maintain those lines, servers, and buildings. Someone has to pay for all those cost.
Also, that "free WiFi" in Taiwan that you're talking about is only in one city, Taipei, and only in government buildings like libraries and hospitals. But here's the best part; the free WiFi is limited to 512 kbps. Good luck watching a youtube video at that speed. Last time I checked, you can get free internet at all public schools and libraries in the U.S. and at much faster speeds. Soooo yeah, go get a clue, man.
***** The internet was created for warfare, but after the war was over, scientist gave the internet to the world as an experiment.
I believe we will witness that day when internet will become abundant and free.
Wilvin Crawford You needs to study more, You have not notice that we are currently advancing in all aspect of technology.
Technology will merge in the fabric of our everyday life, We will begin to demand the abundant use of the internet, the internet will eventually be free.
if glass protects from uv light, why are uv light bulbs made of glass?
+Erin Bartels Glass absorbs more of the higher energy UVB which causes sunburns but passes more of the lower energy UVA which makes you tan. Not all the UV is absorbed by glass so some will make it through anyway.
+Peter White i second tht
It made out of special glass
amazing question erin... :D
Uv light is not part of the human eye visible spectrum.
and there are different Uv light wave lenghts with different frequencies and different energies
Man, this is so astonishing. Creativity and thinking in numerous possible ways is the problem-solving hack way back from history! Totally loved the speech.
i legit learned something i have been wondering for a while
tedx is one of the few channels that actually teach you stuff, with out it going in one ear and out the other
I've got a question. If you would shine an insane amount of light on a solid object, that isn't normally transparent, could you transfer enough energy to all of the electrons so they would all reach their maximum potential energy level, so they would not be able to absorb additional energy and the remaining energy would shine through the object making it transparent?
+Daniel Mørk it's not the "amount" of light but the energy of every single photon, and yes you can make an object transparent by increasing the energy of photons, that's how x-rays work
Oh, I see. Thank you :)
+Daniel Mørk If you would just increase the amount, you would just see it more, brighter. That's why objects have colour, because when they absorb the energy from visible light to jump to higher energy level, they also later emit the photon of the colour when they jump to lower energy level
You need to increase the frequency of photon and not increase the amount(increase brightness). So gamma waves might do the job due to their extremely high frequency.
The formula is E=hv where h is plank's constant while v stands for frequency.
electrons don't stay in the excited state for that long time as they return to their original level for the atom to be stable releasing the same amount of energy the electron absorbed as photon so the object just reflect more light and appers brighter
this may answer your question about increasing the light intensity (increasing the number of photons)
but I want to know something. we see things colored because objects absorb some photons of specific wave length and reflect the remaining photons which make us see this object of certain color. so why this object absorb these certain photons? and what is their fate?
I remember asking my science teacher about this. He never told me. "Something to do with the molecules."
It's much more complicated than what was summed up in this video. THis video took 5 minutes to briefly sum an explanation without any detail. DOn't blame your teacher really.
The most honest answer a teacher can give is "i don't know". Don't be mad at that answer, at least its honest.
Pablo Blo GDI Read and agreed to.
MÓNICA ANDRADE my teacher said it's just a characteristic of the glass
MÓNICA ANDRADE didnt she go to college or something? And no, she might aswell have said "i dont know".
That music at the end is always so oddly satisfying.. 😍
The Europeans had... wine, and developed glass as an inert means of storage - and it looked pretty. This led to windows, lenses, corrected vision, telescopes and more. The Chinese, on the other hand, were happy with their tea, in shellac cups, and the use of paper for lanterns and windows, so the glass revolution only happened later.
(Meanwhile, the Chinese inventing gunpowder, paper milling, acupuncture, the seismograph, the adjustable wrench, the rudder, the compass, and literal ancient robots (wine automatons) to serve their wine instead)
Meanwhile India had surgeons, 0, theory of atoms among other things.
@@connection_ok wow
Glass is not technically a solid -it usxa semi solid that actually flows -verry verry slowly but if you measure the thickness if glass accurately enough and then place a sheet of glass upright and measure again some years latter it will be thicker at the bottom as it "flows "under its own weight The flow us incredibly slow so for practical purposes it us a solid but physicists will tell you that in their terms it is classified as a "liquid " or "semi solid "
@@ronnieince4568 technically, anything above absolute zero isn't solid
Thumbs up if you're watching this in 2337 through a transparent steel screen.
In 2547 we're watching on transparent titanium screen
pshh old schooler everyone knows that s29o# is the new device
I'm watching this in 3147. We see this in history videos.
+Lexi Fairis It isn't History we watch this in, it's Science
+Josh Morgan Steel Screen? The rage now is bioluminiscent flexible self-repairing films. And it also runs with glucose too!
0:07 Is that you I Hate Everything?!
+Broguy the Shy Guy Thanks for giving me a name for that guy
+Broguy the Shy Guy Thanks for giving me a name for that guy
+Broguy the Shy Guy yes
no its 0.08
Broguy 22 q
This was the best explanation of the phenomenon I have ever seen. Thank you.
All information on the internet should be as useful as this is!!!😃
Pretty sure people get suntan through glass! Ask the drivers!
JustDance Pinky33 I now that's what I was wondering!
Yeah I've definitely gotten a tan through glass. It could be that glass absorbs only UVA (320 to 400 nm) light or only UVB (280 to 320 nm) light. UVA leads to a quick, but short lasting tan, as it oxidizes melanin that already exists in your skin. UVB on the other hand leads to melanin production, and results in a tan that takes a few days to show, but lasts for weeks to months.
Only specific wavelengths of uv light can be absorbed by glass. An electron needs a very specific amount of energy in order to "jump" to a higher orbital
it can give protection but not full protection , like bullet-proof vest , after a couple of bullet it can get through at the same place
Glass absorbs the UV but some of it still manages to get through, just a lot slower. And different glasses are different with lights
🍕
I guess that's a good analogy
doesnt taste too good :/
Aiko Maliako lol
UNSEEN
You made me hungry
The science behind glass is really fascinating…I believe I first learned from Minecraft that sand is used to form glass. It was interesting to learn about its makeup on a atomic level…energy levels and photons to explain why light is able to pass through glass and not other objects.
Very simple and elegantly answered unlike how other youtube channels tend to complicate this.
after this video I looked at my window. wow.
Glass: What is my purpose?
Me: Your purpose is to be featureless and invisible, with people forgetting your there.
Glass: What is my purpose?
Me: To prank everyone into thinking they can walk through you.
Glass: What is my purpose?
Me: To break my nose, apparently.
I'm joking, I've never broken my nose, but I once ran into a glass sliding door because I thought it was open. 🤦♀️
I have been wondering this on and off for many years. Thank you so much.
Omg the fact I've been searching around this question a couple of months ago and finally earned a proper answer. Thank you!!❤
Optical illusion at 2:30
Stare at the red ball in the middle at it will appear as though the lines on the far electron shell has disappeared
+The sky is falling because tomatoes are really annoying. Found someone whos username is longer than mine
Oh,Yes!
The sky is falling because tomatoes are really annoying. nice username oooooh
the comment section happens to be equally, or maybe even more informative than the video itself, love it!
This absolutely blew my mind :O
Thanks so much for the absolutely insane videos!
very well explained. i have found no other explanation at this level of excellence
I love this channel. For real, it's one of the few things that make believe that internet can be used for good. Congratulations to everyone involve in developing theses videos, you are changing the world, even if not everyone notice. 😀
all these years i have thought that you could get a tan while exposed to the sun through a glass, for example a car's windshield or a glass window etc
+Ayan44 You can get a sunburn through glass, though not all the UV (A & B) may be let through, depending on the type of glass, the coatings applied to the glass, and the angle the sunlight hits the glass, so the rate will be slower than if in the direct sun. Look up "UV transmission spectra of glass" if interested.
Put your hand under a magnifying glass outside in the sun.. Trust me, you'll get nice and crispy :D
have been looking for this answer for more than 20 years. Now I can die in peace. Thank you TED-Ed. I really appreciate it .
I never thought this was going to be such an elaborate answer
Beautifully animated, and made so easy to understand! Thanks!
Great educators, and animators, collaborating to create; TED-Ed
That was a nice one! I always thought it was about the wave lengths that it absorbs.
It's precisely about the wavelengths it actually does not absorb. The energy of a photon is inversely proportional to his wavelength. So large amount of energy equals small wavelength. That's why ultraviolet (small wavelength), very energetic, is absorbed, when visible light (larger wavelength), less energetic, isn't.
I thought it was!
I had heard the liquid state information before (which I kinda understood) but this piece had even more details and was very clear
This channel is a gift to everyone!
And yet there is not one single person in the world that knows why the photons only interact with the electrons at "the right" energy levels. That is, we know this is why glass is transparent, but we don't know the fundamental reason why.
***** It was not an argument from ignorance, it was an argument from that I have not seen an explanation of why the quantum world acts as it does. If there is an understanding of this I would be happy if you provide a link to the theory.
Your examples with the wave and the ball are opposite of how the quantum effect is. Waves interact with each other regardless of wavelength and amplitude, they combine and can carry "infinite" different levels of frequencies. And with the ball example it would absorb the energy. In the quantum world they do not interact at all unless they have the exact right quantum state or energy.
Because God was like 'LET THERE BE QUARTZ THEY MAKE GLASS" and SPOOF Quartz came out of no where
***** magnetism affects only charged particles and light photons do not possess a charge or mass (although they are still affected by gravity)
I am disappointment in you're speling *****
jmiles8888 I see what you're getting at there but the alternative is "THAT'S JUST THE WAY NATURE IS, SO DEAL WITH IT". Which while more logical is just as dissatifying.
Amazing vid. it helped me understand refraction more. However, I still have one question and would be delighted if answered: if light doesn't have enough energy to make electrons jump, why don't the electrons just take all the light energy making it disappear or does it have to do with how far the electrons are?
Paradoxically, light can pass through glass precisely because it does not have the energy to move the electrons too much. In the case of metals, light can easily move them, therefore it cannot pass.
@@marianl8718 oooooh, that fact completely passed my mind. Thanks alot man although it's been a year 😂. I guess I could sleep at night well now 😅😂
@@LolLol-ez8uk Yes, in the case of glass, the situation is somewhat similar to a very good soccer goalkeeper, who is tied to one of the goal posts with a spring. He can only move as far as the spring allows and can only reject a small part of the balls. These few rejected balls correspond precisely to that small fraction of light reflected by the glass.
The video is older, I just found it now. Of course you also tried to give some explanations, as I did, because this video does not explain much.
Thank you for your reply.
The poetry in these narrations are just on another level
THANK YOU!!!
I always wanted that answer.
Wow I finally understand orbitals and fermi energy levels. Thanks. :)
I love how they replaced the nucleus with football stadium
Yeah, they didn't. The stadium was only used to provide the scale, the nucleus was replaced by a pea in the analogy provided. Pay attention next time.
@@HangTimeDeluxe calm down boomer
When people say fire is the most important invention ever. I often think of glass (something that can separate things while letting light goes thru) and magnet.
I love the way this channel explains..I simplyyyy love it❤❤❤
Great job. This is an excellent explanation about the transparency of glass. It would be great if Ted-Ed did a video explaining why metals reflect light.
Penguin
That last sentence is my life story...
Andrew Stewart Dont say that bro, keep it up!
So far. You can change that
clear explanation with smooth attractive animation and not to mention about his soothing voice 🤠makes this amazing channel
Good stuff. Nicely described in terms pretty much anyone can understand.
why every glass can't be used for UV protection?
different chemicals give different properties to the glass. For example some colors are more effective at absorbing UV ligth compare to the others. And again it is due to the subatomic level.
So; mostly, because of the components in the glass.
I know that chemical composition change the physical and chemical properties, But in the video, from 03:05 to 03:20 minutes, he says that UV rays provide right energy and are absorbed and can't pass through it, so glass give UV protection. The video should be about " Normal" transparent glass , not Chemically coated or treated glass. Right?
+Vinay Kumar it's a simplification. UV light is a range of frequencies, glass absorb specific frequencies inside the UV range. So glass offer some UV protection, but not total protection ( this is why one gets suntan through driving a cabin car, but less so then in a convertible )
Vinay Kumar not all glass is made of quartz!
Genialmente didáctico. Gracias por la clase sobre transparencia en cristal y en vidrio.
Un breve comentario sobre la fibra óptica?😐☺
Ya
Beautiful explanation!
I appreciate these videos that explain something without taking 20 to 30 minutes to get to the point.
Plus amazing animations
0:15 everything
Lots of things are made of glass that we don't even think about. Screens, cups, mugs, computer cases, eyeglasses, even jewelry sometimes... It really is one of the most useful materials we have. Good video!
ted-ed always gives the clarity😇
asking questions i never think of but always find interesting
Glass is the real MVP
Plastic?
@@adrianadrianadrian7283 they are frenemies
the Minimum Viable Product? i mean... no it is not :P it's actually the oposite
This video is incorrect. It proposes the hypothesis that photons are too small or carry insufficient energy to excite the molecules (or more accurately the electron ball/field that surround atoms), thus slipping through glass unperturbed. It is well known that light is slowed down by 40% when moving through glass. It is also well known that light is refracted within the medium. Thus, there is a tremendous amount of interaction or interference between the light photon and the molecules and/or their electrons in the glass. There are a number of hypothesis as to what is occurring, but there is as yet no definitive answer to the question. I would recommend, for those who wish a deeper study, and to become more confused, looking at several Sixty Symbols video's covering the subject. Of particular interest, 'Why is glass transparent?' with Professor Phil Moriarty (which somewhat supports this Ted video), and two subsequent videos 'Why is light slower in glass' with Professor Marifield and an additional video by Moriarty where he concedes his first video is too simplistic. I would like to say that Ted generally produce very informative work, and they are a great boon to our society. But they are not infallible. It might have been more inspiring to create a video: 'Why does light go through glass? We're not sure!', and then run down a number of hypothesis on the subject.
thank you for these videos. Truly grateful
Loved this video! 🤗😁👍
All my basic Physics and Chemistry lessons from school were instantly revived from some deep recess in my brain! 😊😎
yay i learned something
uh... that's not exactly why most materials are opaque. from what you claim, opaque materials should block very specific frequencies, and let most light go through. Instead opaque materials absorb some light and reflect some.
What's happening is that 1) a photon doesn't need to have *exactly* the right amount of energy, even for a free atom/molecule, it has some narrow band of frequencies that do get absorbed.
but once you consider a solid, there are alot of atom, affecting each other, shifting the bands randomly, and making them broader.
additionally, an atom would absorb light and then re-emit it, perhaps emit it in different frequencies, but still, it can't just keep the energy to itself.
but when you bunch up atoms together, they could absorb the photon, and instead of giving it back as new light, just share it with other atoms. Then the atoms shake and heat up, absorbing the photon completely.
Last thing to remember is that nothing is exact, and nothing is binary.
you can absorb 37% of light at a curtain frequency, reflect 53% and let 10% through.
Besides that, even though the atom is mostly empty, the visible light has a much bigger wavelength, so this empty space is just not enough to pass through.
Yeah, the explanation in the video didn't really make any sense to me. It still didn't explain much of reflection or reflection, didn't address wavelengths or energy levels of light, didn't even bother to mention the heat those interactions can cause.
A good example of their explanation failing is with the grille on the inside of a microwave oven door. That grille is designed specifically so that light below infrared cannot pass through (so we aren't cooked alive watching our food heat up). The explanation in the video cannot possibly justify how this works. Yours does! Kudos.
its been years , I searched this question everywhere books, Asked professors , nothing explains more beautiful than this
Amaaaazing video. I never knew that I needed to know that. Very informative
I wish educational videos would stop showing electrons as jumping between electron shells. I'm sure the creators know that they can't exist between the shells, as quantization is the reason for photons not being absorbed by all electrons. So why is it that we keep pretending that electrons move like every-day macro objects?
I don't think this makes it any easier to learn. Firstly, because of this strategy we are specifically lying about the nature of these things from the start, putting up barriers to understanding reality in the future. Secondly, the reason for transparency is easier to understand if you understand that electrons only exist in these shells. And lastly, this explains the reason for molecular spectrum and allows you to properly research why different frequencies of light are or are not absorbed.
Oversimplification is worse than explaining the picture in too much detail; in taking this approach we are cutting ourselves off from how we discovered these properties of nature. Besides, quantization is most confusing to those who have accepted these more 'simple' models. It's not hard to accept for those who had no model of physics, to begin with.
Correct
Perfect.
Huh? First, there is NO "between the shells"! Second, ALL molecules 'share' outer orbits so YES.. the electrons have to "jump" between shells. Chemistry 101
You say that because you know too much.
If what you said was in the video, people would think “why?” And get carried away with that thought and miss the broader picture
The point isn’t to get people to understand the point about electrons, but about glass.
With all due respect, maybe its because.. you don't know anything. Why did you even comment? Go buy a book, friend.
um electrons don't really orbit around the nucleus. Electrons have a certain probability that they will have their strongest point in a certain location. This matters because an orbit is a point that smoothly moves around something, electrons just teleport.
Amazing video! Perfectly explains why light cannot go through walls.
This is one that just put so much more questions in my brain.
That's awesome! With that being said, my question is how do mirrors play a part in this subject. Its glass but its not transparent. Is there a different element or is the glass created differently?
It's a layer of metal on the back of the glass...
A mirror is a glass pane with a reflective material (normally metal) attached to the back of it, you can see the gap caused by the reflex surface being behind the glass if you've ever put you hand flat against your bathroom mirror. Some mirrors have the reflective surface on the front but those are mostly precision instruments and the early bronze and rock ones
ah so that’s why most walls can let wifi and radio through, the photon energy isn’t enough to excite the atoms.
Correction, it’s excite the electrons
@@vianneyneba5856 But to a very small extent, these are bound electrons.
Good explanation. Thanks.
I started to love this channel
For some reason I thought it said why is milk transparent and i was like wtf
what? you're saying that milk *isnt* transparent?
*OMG! THE DEPICTION AT THE END! ALL OF OUR SCREENS THAT WE'RE WATCHING THIS ON ARE ALSO GLASS!!! I ESPECIALLY LOVE TED-ED ENDINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS SO CLEVER!!!*
Thank you... very helpful..
Solved lot of problems
I always wondered why my transition glasses would not darken inside, even though I was sitting in sunshine. Amazing video, like always!
my friend : " a glass is simple "
me :" *IT'S COMPLICATE*
Didn't know UV doesn't pass thur glass. Wow, good to know.
A small amount does.
Really nice explanation..
Never thought of that, one of the greatest videos ✌️👏
The video contains an error.
Electrons can't be between two energy levels as shown, they pass from one level to another without ever staying in between the levels. It makes no sense because it is quantum physics .
Renato Silva Of course, you are correct, I believe that is more of an abstraction than anything else, to aid in understanding.
Well that's just depiction for basic science ideas.
The animator likely knows little to nothing about the topic, almost every video is animated by a new person...
Unless you're referring to the narration being an error; but I think when he says "jumps" it is just a synonym for moves.
Except he actually explained that, even if the visual is incorrect. If the electron doesn't get enough energy, it cannot go the the next level. There are no half-levels.
@joshua james there are none
electron energy levels are discrete values
no in between ones
He forgot that it scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7
Lol
Great as always
His voice is so fluent! I love it
I wish more humans were like glass… ´transparent’
I love you glass!
Glass: I have a Boyfriend/Girlfriend
@@rollingrocky3608 Lol
Amazing.... Truly astonishingly beautiful. LIFE!
I definitely have wondered about this.
you can get a sunburn through glass..... one time my sister fell asleep beside a window and woke up with a sunburn across her legs.......
You can but it would take a lot longer than if the glass was not present.
Gretcie agreed, but he shouldn't have said it was impossible.
Yea on that account he was incorrect.
Maybe she snuck out to the beach without you knowing, got a tan and went back to her room and pretended to be asleep.
I think it's because he was talking about some sort of ideal glass. But yes, the statement is incorrect when we talk about real glass
Curious People : "Why is glass transparent?"
Me who watches Jerry: "Glass is glass and glass is transparent."
How fantastic it could be to confirmed what i predicted about the glasses subatomic structure regarding transparency.
Well done!