The Transparent World of Glass

The world renowned Louvre built from glass

It may be hard to believe, but glass, that invisible and fragile material, is considered to be one of the most important materials used to shape the world of today. Whether it be holding your morning ice latte or encasing those sky piercing structures in town, glass has fundamentally built the modern world we live in. In fact, our understanding of the core sciences would not be possible without the glass in our trusty microscopes and glassware.

So, yes: glass is essential to us. But why is that exactly?

Transparency of Glass:

Well, obviously, one of the intrinsic properties of glass is that it is transparent. Glass allows light and other forms of electromagnetic waves to pass through while blocking out most other matter. To understand why glass is transparent, we first need to understand what happens when light int