Physics of Brittle Failure during Impact.

This article provides an analysis of the physics behind the shattering of glass and ceramic objects when they are dropped or impacted. The study utilizes video analysis to examine the process of fracture propagation and the phenomenon of bouncing before breaking into pieces. The article emphasizes the significance of understanding the resilience of ceramic and glass materials to impacts, particularly in applications such as vehicle and aircraft armor and orthopedic surgery. The experimental setup and results are presented, highlighting the necessity of high-speed cameras to capture crack propagation on a precise timescale. The article also discusses an experiment involving the impact and breakage of ceramic mugs and a wine glass, focusing on the physics of breakage and the conservation of energy. The experiment demonstrates that the speed of crack propagation is limited and that each individual piece of the broken object possesses less kinetic energy than the original object. The article suggests that this experiment can serve as an educational tool for students to comprehend materials and load bearing. Further investigations can be conducted to examine the properties of the materials and the exact failure mechanism during load bearing. [Extracted from the article]