Shout out to Destin from SmarterEveryDay for his love of PRDs.<p>Learn about and see how it’s made – <a href="https://youtu.be/xe-f4gokRBs" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/xe-f4gokRBs</a><p>Encasing a shattering drop in glass –<a href="https://youtu.be/C1KT8PS6Zs4" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/C1KT8PS6Zs4</a><p>The process the team uses in the second video to freeze the break in glass is pretty awesome! (If you’re into that kind of thing)
The name alone, but even the description sounds like a special item in an RPG.<p>> 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 a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged.
It's funny because you don't need the drop shape to demonstrate this at all. Any random piece of tempered glass demonstrates the same thing if you know where the stress is.<p>You can hit a shovel against the flat side of a piece of tempered glass and not break it because the shovel is too large & flat. But you chip the corner, or use a small tool like a punch break, and the whole thing will pop.<p>Now, use the edge of the shovel against the edge of the glass and you'll have a lot more luck breaking it.
Apparently if you use liquid soap instead of water you can get a drop with virtually no tail. Then the only way to really break it is by hitting it with a Nokia phone.
This is beautiful on his site - <a href="https://www.calbreed.com/prince-ruperts-drop/" rel="nofollow">https://www.calbreed.com/prince-ruperts-drop/</a>
The Beauty in Tension<p>…that glass bubble<p>That finds philosphers such trouble<p>Whose least part crackd, the whole does fly<p>And wits are crack’d, to find out why.<p><pre><code> Hudibras by Samuel Butler, 1663 (on the mystery of the Prince Rupert’s Drop)</code></pre>
It's funny, I've just discovered this drop two days ago, because it's mentioned at the end of Book 5 of Dungeon Crawler Carl (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/309211-dungeon-crawler-carl" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/series/309211-dungeon-crawler-carl</a>)<p>A coworker shared this video about the artisan who makes theses drops <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KT8PS6Zs4&pp=ygURc21hcnRlciBldmVyeSBkYXk%3D">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KT8PS6Zs4&pp=ygURc21hcnRlc...</a>