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Why has the jar broken?
We had a jar full of some spice in the freezer.
We took it out (of the freezer) to thaw (still inside the closed jar).
After a while, the jar broke!
Why?
I've read that water expands when freezed. So the jar should have broken when inside the freezer, not when taken out!
And how do I know, just by looking at the jar, if the pressure was from outside or from inside? (the jar is still "intact").
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@EricR, I also thought that there was low pressure of air inside. Your answer seems the most probable one. Maybe when the jar was in the freezer the air flew out (because of the expansion of the water). Now, when the jar was brought out air from the outside didn't come in because the thawed water sealed the lead.
But... I see that the crack is mostly at the "corner" of the jar. It seems the strongest place. I'd expect the crack to be in the middle.
@Joanzn, your answer is probably wrong because water contracts in heat...
@Alan, that's an interesting theory.
@Jen, I wouldn't say the temp change was "sudden". But your theory is plausible.
5 Answers
- ?Lv 41 decade agoFavorite Answer
the jar broke when the ice melted ... the water compressed and the glass cracked from decompression.
if it broke from expansion, it would have kinda exploded outward and the glass would not be intact.
- 1 decade ago
i believe it has to do with thermal expansion ..the glass jar would contract yet the water in the material inside (everything has water in it) (except freeze dried) would expand and even more so if there was salts or sugars inside...... the glass jar has a low coefficient of expansion..meaning it wont expand fast compared to other things.. Water expands and the glass will keep contracting...when you take it out with the lid on the molecules inside have nowhere to go and the water will actually expand a little more and the glass wont have time to catch up because of it's low coefficent..thus it breaks.
- 1 decade ago
It will have been due to the sudden temperature change. Atoms in the glass will suddenly become animated due to the excess thermal energy given to it, and the resulting vibrations will cause the atoms to displace themselves, forming cracks. It doesn't have anything to do with pressure.
- ?Lv 61 decade ago
the only logical reason i can think of is that the jar was full of supercooled water and disturbing it caused it to suddenly freeze solid and burst the glass
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