Do you know how to break a car window??
Jul 21, 2015 12:48:23 GMT -6
dirkgently, bonhommearmonica, and 3 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 12:48:23 GMT -6
Well... Do you?
Don't answer TOO quick here, as you might not know as much as you first assumed. Car windows are glass. Glass breaks. Hit glass, problem solved...right? ..umm.. No. It isn't. If an emergency is your first time considering this little problem....you may literally die wondering what you did wrong.
What brought this to mind as something to go over was this story in the news today:
Don't answer TOO quick here, as you might not know as much as you first assumed. Car windows are glass. Glass breaks. Hit glass, problem solved...right? ..umm.. No. It isn't. If an emergency is your first time considering this little problem....you may literally die wondering what you did wrong.
What brought this to mind as something to go over was this story in the news today:
The backstory to that is simple. Parents left the toddler in a locked and closed car. That ought to be attempted negligent homicide...actually..and its why you need to KNOW, not assume you know, how to break this very unique piece of glass. As you can see in the video...she's got a tire iron bouncing back in her face. Bouncing.....and I've personally seen a .38 Special deflect off windshield glass. It took some screwing around in a place with wrecks to shoot at, but trying to test that myth got the right angle eventually...and bouncy bouncy. Car windows are NOT easy things to break..and they aren't meant to be.
Here is another view of how absurd it can get, trying the wrong way.
"It takes just a matter of seconds to get in........"
Or...NOT.
That isn't a trick window. Its reality, and why you have a number of people drowning in shallow water accidents, as one example of where this knowledge matters to someone other than a car thief.
For those who grew up in a place like I did, and where teaching this in Science Class would have started a car break-in CRIME WAVE...we never heard this growing up. I learned from my wife, it was standard in her science class during school. So...it varies....but ONE rather surprising experiment shows a surprising thing.
Glass can be absurdly strong, as shown above. Glass can also be very weak, and almost fragile. Same glass. Same use as a car window.
Here is another view of how absurd it can get, trying the wrong way.
"It takes just a matter of seconds to get in........"
Or...NOT. That isn't a trick window. Its reality, and why you have a number of people drowning in shallow water accidents, as one example of where this knowledge matters to someone other than a car thief.
For those who grew up in a place like I did, and where teaching this in Science Class would have started a car break-in CRIME WAVE...we never heard this growing up. I learned from my wife, it was standard in her science class during school. So...it varies....but ONE rather surprising experiment shows a surprising thing.
Glass can be absurdly strong, as shown above. Glass can also be very weak, and almost fragile. Same glass. Same use as a car window.
Pretty nifty, eh? It took me almost 20 minutes and 2 spark plugs to finally hit it right for the harmonics when I tried it years ago.
I don't expect many people will have a hammer and spark plug tho...and we saw above, a hammer alone might actually fail to break it. So.. what to do?? Well... the spark plug is the Mr. Wizard way (or how car thieves actually DO accomplish it, with a couple other steps, to shatter and remove the glass with almost no sound at all). It operates on something other than raw force or focusing it in some way, obviously..and I'll let everyone explore science articles to learn the nitty gritty of that, if they wish. Its enough for me to know it works, personally.
The other way is to get yourself a Hole Punch or a universal emergency tool.
This is what those emergency tools look like, and most auto parts stores carry them for a small price. It looks like a hammer, but with the key difference of that sharp point on the end. Tempered/Auto Glass can absorb and spread impact across it's surface(s) by design. It's part of the point, really. So, the bigger hammer you have, against logic perhaps, the less likely you are to break it easily.
If you focus the same physical power into a fine steel or titanium point though (as that hammer above has), it's a mere tap to shatter it, and watch the glass drop straight down, 'in-place'.
So.... If you don't have one already (or again, a steel hole/leather punch you can find at Lowes. Home Depot or likely Walmart a bit cheaper) then consider getting something in your vehicle. You may never crash. Not once. However....the woman in the story which opened this wasn't in a wreck herself, for the ability to break a car window to become a potential life and death matter.
I don't expect many people will have a hammer and spark plug tho...and we saw above, a hammer alone might actually fail to break it. So.. what to do?? Well... the spark plug is the Mr. Wizard way (or how car thieves actually DO accomplish it, with a couple other steps, to shatter and remove the glass with almost no sound at all). It operates on something other than raw force or focusing it in some way, obviously..and I'll let everyone explore science articles to learn the nitty gritty of that, if they wish. Its enough for me to know it works, personally.
The other way is to get yourself a Hole Punch or a universal emergency tool.
This is what those emergency tools look like, and most auto parts stores carry them for a small price. It looks like a hammer, but with the key difference of that sharp point on the end. Tempered/Auto Glass can absorb and spread impact across it's surface(s) by design. It's part of the point, really. So, the bigger hammer you have, against logic perhaps, the less likely you are to break it easily.
If you focus the same physical power into a fine steel or titanium point though (as that hammer above has), it's a mere tap to shatter it, and watch the glass drop straight down, 'in-place'.
So.... If you don't have one already (or again, a steel hole/leather punch you can find at Lowes. Home Depot or likely Walmart a bit cheaper) then consider getting something in your vehicle. You may never crash. Not once. However....the woman in the story which opened this wasn't in a wreck herself, for the ability to break a car window to become a potential life and death matter.
