What makes glass transparent?
Glass is so common that most of us take it completely for granted. But just what is it about glass that makes it transparent? Why can we see through a window and not through the wooden frame that surrounds it? You have probably noticed that most liquids and gases are transparent. Water, cooking oil, rubbing alcohol, air, natural gas, etc. are all clear. That’s because of a fundamental difference between solids , liquids and gases . When a substance is in its solid state, normally its molecules are highly organized in relation to one another, strengthening the bond between them and giving the substance rigidity. As the substance changes from a solid to a liquid, however, the strength of the bond lessens and the molecules begin to align themselves randomly. If we follow the substance’s progression to a gas, we see that the molecular bond is greatly weakened and the relationship of the molecules to one another is almost completely random. This progression from ordered to random organizati
