Is that the 'supercooled unflowable liquid'?

Not exactly. It is no longer liquid below the glass transition temperature. It is a VERY distinct temperature we can accurately measure for any glass.

Its a common misconception to think glass is just kind of like a liquid that doesn't flow. I.E. many many years ago my friend told me windows from 100 years ago have a thicker region at the bottom, because the top region of the pane flowed to the bottom over the course of many years. This is DEFINITLY not true. Below the glass transition temperature, the structure is frozen in. However we can anneal below this temperture to relieve stresses etc, but the structure won't drastically rearrange.

Thermodynamically speaking, glass is a much higher energy state than the same material crystallized. This means the glass is considered "meta-stable" meaning its definitly not the preferred state, nor does the "glass" phase show up on any phase diagram, however over the period of a million years it will still be the same old glass. It is just one of those kinetic things where the atoms just don't have time to arrange themselves in crystals.

If you want to learn more, just google glass transition temperature, glass nucleation, glass crystal growth. We make glass out of laundry detergent called "Borax" for lab tours. It melts at about 1000C, but it will for sure dissolve in your palm and micro/macro crack. B2O3 isn't the best glass former.

Then what should glass be classified into? Do you mean it's neither liquid or solid?

It is 100% solid below the glass transition temperature. Above this, it should be considered liquid.

Glass is actually "amorphous" meaning no long range crystal structure. The atoms can be thought of as "disordered".

Disordered solid (crystals), you mean?

crystal tells me it has a structure, where glass has no structure. you could call it an amphorous solid, to be 100% accurate.

http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/glass.htm

that paints a pretty good picture of what glass is.

What is amphorous? (I can't even find it in the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary. Have you did any wrong typing?)

amorphous-

1) Lacking definite form; shapeless. See Synonyms at shapeless.
2) Of no particular type; anomalous.
3) Lacking organization; formless.
4) Lacking distinct crystalline structure.

obviously 4 pertains directly to our case.

Thanks very much. Now go back to Gallium. :arrow: