✗ The myth everyone repeats
Glass is not truly a solid but a slow-flowing liquid. Over many years, window glass will eventually flow like water, and old windows have thicker glass at the bottom because the glass flowed downward.
✓ What is actually true
Glass is an amorphous solid with properties between crystalline solids and liquids, but it is not a liquid. It doesn't flow at room temperature. The thicker glass at the bottom of old windows is due to manufacturing methods of the time that produced uneven thickness, not flowing glass. Glass exhibits a glass transition temperature at which it softens, but this is around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, not at room temperature.
Reception
The receipts 2 sources
- American Chemical Society: Glass is a SolidREFERENCE
- Physics Central: Glass PropertiesREFERENCE