How does glass let light through?
Glass's Relay Race
How does glass let light through?
You look through a window and see the whole world — trees, clouds, your neighbor's cat plotting something suspicious. But here's the weird part: you're staring straight through solid stuff. Glass is hard enough to bonk your knuckles on, yet light slides through it like the glass isn't even there. How does that trick work?
Everything is made of atoms — tiny building blocks way too small to see. In most stuff, atoms huddle close together in messy crowds, like passengers crammed on a subway car. Light tries to push through that crowd and gets bumped, blocked, and scattered in every direction. That's why you can't see through a brick wall or your math teacher's coffee mug.
