Bulletproof glass
Why ordinary glass shatters?
Normal glass offers
little protection against bullets. When a bullet strikes a pane of glass, the
bullet's energy pushes against the glass, making fractures radiate out from the
point where the bullet hit along lines of weakness. This is what makes glass shatter
into huge shards. Glass damaged like this adds an extra element of danger: if
the bullet doesn't kill you, the glass just might
Example:
If you've ever caught a
fast-moving baseball or cricket ball, you'll know the trick is to move your
hand back and stop the ball gradually so you reduce its energy very slowly.
That reduces the force on your hand so the catch hurts less. Putting it more
scientifically, the force the ball exerts on your hand is equal to the rate at
which the ball's momentum changes. So if you change its momentum slowly, by
bringing it to a halt gradually, the force you feel is reduced.
Problem:
Unlike your hand, a
piece of glass can't
move. If someone fires a bullet at an ordinary piece of glass, the glass can't
bend and absorb the energy very
gradually. So it simply shatters and the bullet carries on through with hardly
any loss of momentum. That's why ordinary glass offers no protection against
bullets: it is completely ineffective at slowing them down and absorbing their
energy.
How bulletproof glass works?
"Bulletproof"
glass is very different to ordinary glass. More correctly called
bullet-resistant glass (because no glass is totally bulletproof), it's made
from layers of polycarbonate (a tough type of plastic), sandwiched in between pieces of
toughened glass. This sandwich of layers is called a laminate. It can be up to ten times thicker
than a single pane of ordinary glass and it's usually very heavy.
When a bullet strikes bulletproof glass, its energy spreads out sideways through the layers. Because the energy is divided between a number of different pieces of glass and plastic, and spread over a large area, it is quickly absorbed. The bullet slows down so much that it no longer has enough energy to pierce through—or to do much damage if it does so. Although the glass panes do break, the plastic layers stop them flying apart. Think of bulletproof glass as "energy-absorbing" glass and you'll have a good idea how it works.
When a bullet strikes bulletproof glass, its energy spreads out sideways through the layers. Because the energy is divided between a number of different pieces of glass and plastic, and spread over a large area, it is quickly absorbed. The bullet slows down so much that it no longer has enough energy to pierce through—or to do much damage if it does so. Although the glass panes do break, the plastic layers stop them flying apart. Think of bulletproof glass as "energy-absorbing" glass and you'll have a good idea how it works.
In
simple words :
bulletproof
glasses basically has multiple layers of two components:
2. Plastic sheet: (polycarbonate) plastic
sheet is sandwiched between glasses.
Ordinary
glass shatters and does nothing to stop the passage of a speeding bullet.
Bottom: Bulletproof glass shatters too, but the layers of plastic sandwiched
between the layers of glass absorb and dissipate the bullet's energy. If it
does manage to penetrate through the glass, it will be greatly slowed down and
it will do much less damage.
Where is bulletproof glass used?
Bulletproof glass comes in all shapes and sizes to give
different levels of protection in different situations. You're most likely to
find it in places like banks, where the tellers typically sit behind thick
bulletproof windows and use bulletproof drawers to exchange paperwork and money
with customers. Generally speaking, the thicker the glass and the more layers
it has, the more energy it can absorb and the more protection it will give.
Basic bulletproof glass ranges from about 3cm (1.185 in) to 4cm (1.59 in)
thick, but it can be made twice this thick if necessary.
The only problem is, the thicker you make bulletproof glass the
heavier and darker it becomes. That's may not be a problem in a bank, but it's
certainly a consideration when you're trying to bulletproof a president's car or
a "Popemobile".
Making bulletproof glass thicker also makes it more opaque, because light struggles to get through all those
extra layers. That can cause difficulties if it impairs the driver's
visibility. Rap artist Buster Rhymes ran into problems in 2007 when police stopped his SUV
(with its 5cm/2in-thick bulletproof glass) "for having excessively tinted
windows"!
Who invented bulletproof glass?
Modern
bulletproof glass is simply a variation on laminated safety glass, and that was
invented by a French chemist named Édouard Bénédictus (1878–1930),
who took out a patent on the idea in 1909. His original version used celluloid
(an early plastic) sandwiched between two sheets of glass. The idea of using
polyvinyl plastics in laminated glass dates from 1936, when it was first
proposed by Earl Fix of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more reference please visit: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZEwSQlL88
Thanks to all the sources.
For more reference please visit: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZEwSQlL88
Thanks to all the sources.
0 Komentar
please do comment.