question_answer 26)

What makes a glass different from a solid such as quartz? Under what conditions could quartz be converted into glass? 

Answer:

Glass is a super cooled liquid and an amorphous substance. In glass, SiO4 tetrahedral are joined in a random manner. Quartz is the crystalline form of silica (SiO¬2) in which tetrahedral units SiO4 are linked with each other in such a way that the oxygen atom of one tetrahedron is shared with another Si atom. Quartz can be converted into glass by melting it and cooling the melt very rapidly.