How is a Prince Rupert's Drop Made?
A Prince Rupert's Drop is made when you get molten glass and drip a bit of that molten glass into cold water, where it hardens to form the tadpole-like shape.
The Prince Rupert's Drop is very strong and tough in a way, but is also very very delicate at the same time.
What do I mean by its tough and delicate at the same time?
Well the reason why it is both tough and delicate is the way that its formed. When the molten glass drips into the cold water, the outside of the droplet suddenly goes hard. As the inside of the droplet starts to cool down it tries to pull in against the outside layer, but the outside layer has already gone hard and is set in that place. And because it can't pull in the outside layer it just puts more strain on itself. Because there is so much strain on the inside of the droplet that strain actually makes it harder and stronger.
You could try all you wanted to break the head of the droplet, but it wont break. you could hit it with a hammer, you could even try to break it from shooting it with a gun. But you will find that you won't be able to make it do so.
The way that these droplets actually break is if anything were to happen to the tail of the droplet, if you were to cut or snap the tail, it would send a reaction like a chemical explosion, except the difference is its not releasing chemical potential energy, it releases something called mechanical strain energy.
(Let's say that you cut the tail) From the point of the tail that you cut on the droplet it sends a reaction down the rest of the droplet, and the Prince Rupert’s Droplet explodes at a speed that isn’t visible for the human naked eye.
On average the Prince Rupert’s Drop will explode at a speed of about 1,900 meters per second (up to 480 km/h).
And that is how a Prince Rupert's Drop is formed and how to make it explode.
If you were to test this here is a few safety requirements:
Safety Glasses
Covered In Shoes
Safety Gloves
Some Sort Of Long Sleeve
Thanks for reading,
Ethan.
