Gorilla glass

[Ethanadams]

NASA called gorilla glass smart material that rarely gets scratched or cracked but the gorilla glass on phones scratches and cracks all the time why?

[Bill Phil]

Maybe NASA uses a higher quality version?

[ZedNova]

Because the gorilla glass on your phone is very thin.

[Tommygun]

Nasa doesn't transport their spacecraft in a pocket full of change and car keys.

Think about all the junk you carry around or how often you drop a phone.

A spacecraft shoots up into the air and into the vacuum of space.

Unless something goes wrong it doesn't touch anything and space debris is still somewhat rare.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Tommygun

[cantab]

"Gorilla Glass" is indeed very resistant to scratching. Metal items won't generally scratch; I just tried my knife against my phone (on a part outside the visible screen) and it had no effect. Sand and grit, however, are full of quartz which is a hard mineral and that can scratch the glass. Be careful at the beach!

As for cracks, well while it's tougher than normal glass it's still brittle compared to many other materials. Combine that with the thinness of the glass used in phones and if hit hard enough the glass will break.

And remember not all phones use the same stuff. Some use glass from another maker, others might even use altogether cheaper and less durable materials.

[Nuke]

being scratch resistant is completely different from being scratch proof (which is as far as i know impossible). abuse the device enough and it will scratch.

[RainDreamer]

Kind of wish we have a self-healing material that will repair itself from minor scratches.

[Sirrobert]

Spider silk is stronger than steel, but it's still easy to break because of how thin it is.

Same difference really

[RainDreamer]

Talking about that, they found a new biomaterial stronger than spider silk from a type of sea snails called limpets.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/limpet-teeth-are-strongest-natural-material-known-1.2965059

And it is not their shells, but their teeth.

[lajoswinkler]

I've got a phone with Corning's Gorilla glass and after more than a year there still aren't any scratches. I do take care of it, though. I never put it in the pocket where I keep my keys and I seldom put it on the table. I'm not usually this considerate with mobile phones, but there things' screens are active input surfaces so you have to be careful.

When you clean the screen, first dust it off with something fluffy and wipe afterwards. Environment if filled with quartz minerals and they're harder than Gorilla glass, so they can obviously scratch it.

[Sampa]

Nasa doesn't transport their spacecraft in a pocket full of change and car keys.

Think about all the junk you carry around or how often you drop a phone.

A spacecraft shoots up into the air and into the vacuum of space.

Unless something goes wrong it doesn't touch anything and space debris is still somewhat rare.

you fail to account for the one thing that is the same as a "pocket of loose change", micro-meteoroids!

[Robotengineer]

you fail to account for the one thing that is the same as a "pocket of loose change", micro-meteoroids!

Pocket change doesn't travel at high speed velocities, micro-meteoroids are not a good analogue for pocket change IMO.

[Ethanadams]

Still it dosnt cause the glass to break on the iss

[Sirrobert]

Still it dosnt cause the glass to break on the iss

That glass is WAY thicker

[Ethanadams]

How thicker?

[cantab]

For the cupola, "The window is made up of four panes – an inner scratch pane to protect the pressure pane from accidental damage, two pressure panes 25mm thick to maintain cabin pressure, and finally an outer debris pane.". And there are metal shutters outside that which can be closed.

But it's a totally different scenario anyway. Smartphones need to withstand abrasion eg from objects in pockets with them, overall shock from dropping the phone, and impacts of low-speed moderate/high mass objects eg dropping something on the phone. Spacecraft windows need to withstand hypervelocity impacts of small low-mass objects.

[Robotengineer]

How thicker?

Centimeters thicker.

[Sirrobert]

Centimeters thicker.

Doesn't sound like much until you realize a phone is milimeters. So it's thousands of percentages thicker

[Neywiny]

also the glass on our phones doesn't need to shield against debris at orbital speeds like ISS glass tries to, however the shutter must help a lot, see that even if they break the whole copula module doesn't depressurize in the case of a broken pane.

(also I never thought about how long I've been playing this game until I looked at all of our forum join dates and saw mine at almost two years)

Edited February 27, 2015 by Neywiny

[monstah]

I have taken no care at all of my iPhone (one could say I strive to see it's limits) and I've never broken it or seriously scratched it (a few minor scratches from time) in over two years.

I'm seriously impressed by Gorilla Glass.

[rtxoff]

What a stupid name for glass, a gorilla would smash it easily.

[lajoswinkler]

What a stupid name for glass, a gorilla would smash it easily.

True, but try smashing a gorilla.

[Neywiny]

yeah the only time my phone screen has been damaged was when it was run over, but it still worked perfectly and I don't know if it used gorilla glass (Samsung gs2), but I have the G3 now.

[Sirrobert]

True, but try smashing a gorilla.

With glass?

[ZedNova]

With glass?

No, try smashing a glass gorilla.