B How Can You Reattach Broken Glasses Without Reheating the Atoms?

[Blue Scallop]

atoms don't break.. so when glasses break.. the atoms are only rearrange.. so how do you attach broken glasses without reheating them (which I guess makes the atoms bond).. can't you just instruct the atoms in the edge of the broken glasses to reattach? What would it take to do that?

 

[phinds]

atoms don't break

Not true. They break pretty easily in accelerators

.. so when glasses break.. the atoms are only rearrange.. so how do you attach broken glasses without reheating them (which I guess makes the atoms bond).. can't you just instruct the atoms in the edge of the broken glasses to reattach? What would it take to do that?

One problem is the layer of air that you have in the gap. The atoms/molecules don't quite match up. Another is that you are not going to get perfect alignment when you try to put two pieces back together. When you reheat and melt the pieces back together, you are NOT reattaching the original connections, you are making the molecular bonds plastic and getting a whole new set of connections when the glass goes back to a solid state.

 

[Vanadium 50]

can't you just instruct the atoms

Instructing atoms is even harder than instructing crackpots. The atoms on the newly formed surfaces will do whatever they are going to do - not remember that they are "supposed" to remain in place so they can be reattatched.