When car windshields / windows break, why do they break in little cubes?

Question

just askin....

Answer 1

yep, jim's right!  It's really kind of interesting.  And also I love how it can be fixed!  If you get a small crack, 'they' can prevent it from going any further.  I've had to do this to my windshield, and it's amazing.  Like Magic!

Answer 2

because its safety glass, made to do that instead of shards that would hurt people

Answer 3

Yes, years ago they did.......

Answer 4

They break like that so in case of an accident they are less likely to cut you into little pieces. That's why it's called safty glass.

Answer 5

There is a sheet of plastic sandwiched inbetween two pieces of glass.  That makes the glass "safety glass".  When it is broken, it tends to break into small little chunks so that there is less chance of doing serious damage and causing an injury to the passengers.

Answer 6

Description: Safety glass is a critical safety element of your car. The windshield is made of laminated safety glass, made by sandwiching a sheet of plastic between two or more layers of glass. The side windows are made of tempered safety glass, which is made by heating, then a rapid cooling process.        

Purpose: Safety glass performs several crucial tasks:

Greatly reduces the size and number of flying glass pieces during an accident, lessening the chance of injury to those inside the car.

When the glass breaks, it results in small pebble-like pieces rather than the jagged, sharp pieces from conventional glass.

When used in a windshield, safety glass helps keeps occupants inside the car during an accident and also serves as a deflection panel when the passenger side airbag deploys.

Because of its high strength, it can provide structural support for the roof in the event of a rollover accident.

Answer 7

Safety glass. It's actually meant to help protect you from serious injury (to an extent).

However, the windshield of a car is typically not safety glass. The windshield must be able to withstand a greater level of pressure. Rear and side windows will shatter more easily into millions of tiny pieces. A front windshield is glass with sheets of protective coating over them to actually hold the glass together (it will still shatter but will not fall out in pieces). This is also meant as a measure of protection from injury.

EMT

I've pulled people out of cars when side and rear windows weren't even there anymore...yet the windshields...though shattered...were still intact.

Answer 8

This is a particular item is known as 'tempered' glass. It is usually found in side and rear glass applications. The reason it is used is because tempered glass is very, very strong and much lighter than windshields, which are standard sheets of glass with an acrylic layer sandwiched between them. If we used laminate glass in doors they would crack almost every time we slammed the door. The tempered glass is designed to shatter into very small particles when broken to help prevent deadly lacerations in a vehicle crash (imagine long, thin slivers of glass coming at your face during a collision ... brrrrrr..). Tempered glass is NOT used in windshields because we wouldn't want 45 pounds of glass cubes in our laps every time a stone chipped it whereas a laminate unit will usually receive a small 'chip' or star break.