BRAINDUMP
Can glass be made from lightning hitting sand?
Amazing answers to your curious questions
Gwyneth Barton
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Did you know?
Lake Maracaibo has lightning 300 nights a year
Fulgurite is formed from sand or other sediment fused by lightning
This is indeed possible, as glass and sand are both made from the same chemical: silicon dioxide. Silicon dioxide has an extremely high melting point, so first the sand has to be heated past this for it to become a liquid. In sand the silicon and oxygen atoms are arranged in a very orderly way. When sand is heated to very high temperatures, this arrangement breaks down and the position of the atoms becomes disorderly and random.
If the sand is cooled quick enough then the atoms of oxygen and silicone don’t have enough time to revert back to their nice orderly arrangement so they form the substance we know as glass. When lightning occurs, the strike point can reach temperatures of up to 30,000 degrees Celsius, which is much hotter than the surface of the Sun. Providing the sand is of the right kind, it’s possible that glass will form. Fulgurite is the term given to what is left over, which is a hollow glass tube, and a strike can sometimes penetrate up to 15 metres below the surface of the sand. The type of sand the lightning strikes is a major factor as to whether it will turn into glass or not. Meteorite impacts have also been known to release a large enough amount of energy to convert sand into glass.
Due to the unpredictable nature of lightning strikes, and given that they can be highly dangerous, it might be a risky business opportunity in more than just the financial sense. On average there can be more than 100 lightning strikes happening every second across the globe, but the chances of these being over the right type of sand at exactly the right moment are very low, so don’t get your hopes up!
WHY DO SKUNKS SMELL?
Susie Green
Skunks are renowned for their ability to smell really bad. Not something you want to have associated with your species, but for skunks it’s a massive advantage. Skunks do this by spraying a chemical, or thiol, which is made of sulphurous compounds, and they have a very strong odour. Not only that, but these thiols are very good at sticking to materials and mixing with chemicals to make the smell stick. If a skunk has sprayed this on any of your upholstery or clothes, the smell can often last for weeks. In fact, scientists have successfully isolated the compounds that make the smell stick and applied it to perfumes and fragrances in order to give a longer lasting smell.