Prince Rupert's drop

Uncommon card · No. 81843

Prince Rupert's drops (also known as Dutch tears or Batavian tears) are toughened glass beads created by dripping molten glass into cold water, which causes the glass to solidify into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail. These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or even the impact of a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged. In nature, similar structures are produced under certain conditions in volcanic lava and are known as Pele's tears. The drops are named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who brought examples of them to England in 1660, although they were reportedly being produced in the Netherlands earlier in the 17th century and had probably been known to glassmakers for much longer. They were studied as scientific curiosities by the Royal Society, and...

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