Why porcelain breaks glass

Other cookware that can scratch the glass is ceramic and stoneware that have unfinished, rough bases. When thrown with moderate speed at a side window, a sharp shard of the exceptionally hard aluminium oxide ceramic used in spark plugs focuses the impact energy into a small enough area without blunting to initiate cracking, releasing the internal energy and shattering the glass.

Re: Part of spark plug fell into cylinder The bits will bounce around, turn to dust and go out the exhaust valve. A growing trend in the automotive culture is applying a ceramic coating on glass — including windshields and rear windows. To break your ceramic, place the item in a paper bag, then lightly tap the object with a hammer until you hear it has broken.

Carefully remove the pieces from the bag. Now, take your small piece of sharp porcelain and throw it at the center of the side car window as hard as you can. Even though you are not generating much force with your throw, the sharp porcelain point focuses the force.

It should cause a tiny fracture in the tempered auto glass, which will instantly spread out. Extreme Hardness Surpassing that of Metals The hardness of alumina ceramics is nearly three times that of stainless steel; silicon carbide is more than four times harder than stainless steel.

Car windows are made from tempered glass and are designed to resist blunt force. As such, pounding on a window with a blunt object may have no effect. There four types of glass which have varying impact resistance: Annealed glass, i. Golf balls, baseballs, and sometimes footballs will break and shatter it too. Anyway, race spark plugs sometimes need to be warmed properly to work OK.

He pulls out a spark plug, breaks the porcelain part, and throws that at the window, which instantly destroys the glass. He's all like, "voila!

Look how easy it is! Sure thing, buddy. Now, disregarding all of that silliness, the point of the video is that a very small piece of porcelain can actually break the glass very easily. As the host explains, that is because side car windows are made out of tempered glass, which is resistant to bigger, blunt-force hits. But the tip of a small piece of porcelain has a very hard point on it, which allows it to find a braking point.

First, you can get one from your own car by popping your hood and pulling it out. Next, you will need to break the porcelain casing around the spark plug remembering to protect your eyes from shards.

Then take a sharp piece of the ceramic and throw it precisely at the window you want broken. There four types of glass which have varying impact resistance: Annealed glass, i.

Golf balls, baseballs, and sometimes footballs will break and shatter it too. Anyway, race spark plugs sometimes need to be warmed properly to work OK. At the same time you are warming up the engine, all the system is doing the same, what includes spark plugs.

Do porcelain plates break easily? Although chip and crack-resistant, porcelain and bone china can break, chip or crack if you handle them improperly or get them too hot in the microwave.

But the same thing happens with tempered glass or plastic dinnerware, two other types of durable dinnerware. Glass is created by smelting sand. It can quickly be broken with any tool even your bare hands.

It will not yield re-usable glass blocks unless mined by a tool with the silk touch enchantment. Instead it simply shatters and drops nothing.