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« Newspapers Seek Remedies for Dying Business Model | Main | $52 Million Pickup » May 27, 2006Odd ThingIt was an odd thing that happened to me this morning. I was standing on my driveway at about 11:30 a.m. Suddenly, a shower of pebbles of glass sprayed on and around me. The rear driver's side window on my car had shattered, exploding outward. Nothing hit the window. Repeat, nothing hit the window. No neighborhood kid smashed it with a baseball, nothing fell from the sky and hit it, nobody's Toro kicked up a stone. The window of a ten-year-old car just shattered outward, as if there was too much pressure inside the car. Very odd. Update: I've been told that excessive heat build-up inside a car can build up pressure that shatters a window. It was in the 80s when it happened, but the sun was shining directly on the window that exploded - and it was very hot inside the car. GlassDoctor: $205.64 plus tax. Posted in Miscellaneous
Comments
Bill, No way you can have any significant pressure difference. Even a German car is not air tight. However, flaws in the manufacture of the glass can lock in stresses which with the right temperature differentials can cause an explosive fracture. Historically this is more common in older glass which has had many temperature cycles. While relatively uncommon, aircraft cockpit windows will do this. Rather impressive at 35,000 feet. Alan Hmmm. Okay, maybe not pressure inside the car. Your explanation makes more sense. The fact that the window exploded outward seemed to indicate pressure from inside, but it could just be because the glass was curved that way. The car - and thus the window glass - are ten years old. Posted by: Bill Hobbs at May 27, 2006 8:03 PMWe were up at Foster Falls in Marion County yesterday after a weekend of camping and the same thing happened to a fellow's car while we were packing up. But this wasn't a question of pressure. Whoever owned the car had left a bottle of propane in the back seat in this 90 degree plus weather and the predictable result took place. It made one heck a bang and set off car alarms all around. My friend's 11 year old son barely missed getting hit with the spray of glass and the remains of the bottle shot 70 feet into a crowd of campers from Italy. The back seat of the car was ripped to shreads from the force of the blast. Posted by: mo1962 at May 29, 2006 8:33 AMPost a comment
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