The Glassy State

• Glass is a state of matter.
• Glasses combine some properties of crystals and some of liquids but are distinctly different from both.
• Glasses have the mechanical rigidity of crystals, but the random disordered arrangement of molecules that characterises liquids.
• Glasses are usually formed by melting crystalline materials at very high temperatures. When the melt cools, the atoms are locked into a random (disordered) state before they can form into a perfect crystal arrangement.

The complete description can be seen at the Corning Museum of Glass