A hard, brittle and typically transparent amorphous solid formed by rapidly cooling a fusion of sand, soda and lime is known as what?

• A. Ceramic
• B. Plastic
• C. Glass
• D. Metal

Answer: (C)

Glass is the material described here. It’s an amorphous solid formed when a molten mix of silica from sand, with fluxes like soda and lime, is cooled rapidly. That quick cooling prevents the atoms from arranging into a regular crystal, so the structure becomes disordered and non-crystalline. This amorphous network gives glass its hardness and brittleness, while its uniform, non-crystalline arrangement lets light pass through, making it transparent. The description matches glass rather than metals or plastics, which are crystalline and have different properties, and while some ceramics can be tough or opaque, the rapid cooling of a silica-soda-lime melt specifically produces soda-lime glass.