What Makes a Stone Skip When Tossed Across a Pond?

You mean light transmission? Similar to Apollo 13 reentry angle.

I's just a matter of lift as others posted.

Also for interests sake glass is not technically a liquid, it's real definition is a non crystaline amorphous solid. The idea that it can be considered a supercooled liquid vaporized decades ago along with the theory that it flows over time.

 

I said to give it as MUCH BOUNCE AS POSSIBLE. If you want to give your kid a cannon, that is fine with me.

 

It is a highly viscous fluid. Old window glass shows the flow from the effects of gravity with the effect that the glass "pools" at the bottom and thins at the top. Your amorphous solid statement reflects the wiki article which I referenced in my earlier post.

 

It's another one of those myths that just won't go away...

The thickening at the bottom of those windowpanes would take at least
10^19 years. I guess that's longer than the 6000 years the world has
existed according to some befuddled types, so they reject it.

See, among other scientific papers:
Y.M. Stokes, "Flowing windowpanes: fact or fiction?"
Royal Society Proc. A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences,
455, 1999, pp. 2753-2758.

 

Just a few then!

The 'flow' is technically called "devitrification".

 

Earlier estimates put it at 10^32 years.
There are many other references, but I only included the one which thanks
me for pointing out the myth

My erstwhile colleague E.O. Tuck made the same mistake and was shocked
to learn he was spreading unmitigated bulldust. It led Stokes to write that
paper and eventually earn a PhD under his supervision.

I have absolutely no faith that it will stop the myth from being propagated -
"it must be true because my science teacher/priest/stockbroker said so AND
I read it on the internet."

 

You have bought into an Urban Myth I'm afraid. Glass doesn't flow it doesn't even 'Creep' under load. The ancient Egyptian glass bottles are still as they were made all those thousand of years ago ! Otherwise they would be puddles.
Window glass is a good example, the fact that some is thicker on the top and some on the side and most on the bottom proves that the glaziers tended to install the thickest part on the pane the lowest. That's all.

But as Leo posted it's now well proven that it's baloney and the urban myth needs killing. So kill it whenever you see it.

 

Without deviating from the topic, can anybody explain why when adding cornstarch, (a non Newtonian. or anti Newtonian material) to the water makes it resist impact but remain a fluid?

There were two explanations.

1. It holds the molecules of water making it "unstretchable".
2. The molecules tend to close together when impacted, increasing its density.

I have seen the demonstration but it is the explanation that does not sit well with me.

Which one is the correct one?

 

You're referring to thixotropic material behaviour. This should answer your questions:
http://www.dfi.uchile.cl/~rsoto/docencia/FluidosNoNewton2008/trixotropia.pdf

 

Open that urban mith pdf later reading this on my mobile
thixotroop, is that also the reason you can cut glas under water
witbh a scissor? (even at the bottom of a bucket water)
chew and swallow it and more? will check I-net and be back
dont start on extra toughed glas as thats much harder to scissor

 

While we are at it and considering that the stone skip has been well answered:

There is some supposed saints blood that gets shaken into a liquid each year, also a thixotropic change. Good for business some of these awe inspiring tricks.

That is an iron gel from memory. It solidifies but liquifies when shaken.

Yipster
I didn't know that, I found this explanation but I'm not saying it is correct:

"water causes glass to crack more easily because when a water molecule enters the crack, a reaction occurs in which a silicon-oxygen bond at the crack and an oxygen-hydrogen bond in the water are cleaved, creating two hydroxyl groups attached to silicon. As a result, the length of the crack grows by the size of one bond rupture. The water reaction reduces the energy necessary to break the silicon-oxygen bonds, thus the crack grows faster."

 

hi Mike, seems to have to do with freqency dampening
way i learned it was with normal houshold sciccor
and the deeper into the water bucket the better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2RLzzNNNwg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5u7SCNVYTA&NR=1&feature=endscreen
seems those egyptians did more than just build pyramids

 

You got me.

 

If you'd listened to what your mother had told you, you wouldn't get into these messes

 

I blame my high school chemistry teacher, God rest his soul.