Madonna is helping science make clearer windows and stronger baby food jars. Well, her voice is, anyway.
A scientist has been using the voice of Madonna and other female pop singers in an experiment to strengthen glass. You’ve probably seen glass shatter when a singer hits the right high note. That’s because high-frequency sound waves are released that penetrate microscopic cracks in glass, making it shatter.
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The scientist, William LaCourse of the Glass Science Institute in New York, tried soaking glass in a potassium solution before cranking up a Madonna tune. He found that glass wouldn’t break. In fact, it became up to five times stronger. Why? When the sound waves hit the potassium-covered glass, a chemical reaction occurs. Potassium’s big, bulky atoms crowd out glass’ smaller atoms, which “forces cracks in the surface of the glass to close,” LaCourse says.