
If glass is made from sand, why is it transparent?
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Hopefully our answer is crystal clear, all it requires is smoothing out those rough edges and trapping the electrons.
Asked by: Anonymous
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To make glass, the sand – together with limestone and soda – is heated to 1400°C. Unlike opaque materials like metals, the electrons in the resulting compound don’t have much freedom within its crystalline structure, and thus are not very effective at absorbing light energy. So light can pass through relatively unscathed.
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Authors

Robert MatthewsPhysicist
Robert is a science writer and visiting professor of science at Aston University.
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