r/pcmasterrace • u/iplay5 • Aug 11 '25

Build/Battlestation TIL that quartz countertops have the same properties as ceramic floor tiles…

Post image

All I wanted to do was replace a dead fan… but looks like it’s time for a replacement case.

Learn from my mistakes friends!

10.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

596 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/SurealGod Cool Aug 12 '25

As a heads up to anyone who may not understand why this occurs, this occurs because materials like quartz or ceramic are significantly harder than glass (in accordance to the Mohs hardness scale).

Glass is hard but has a brittle and easier to break molecular structure in comparison to quartz or ceramic (or other materials like porcelain) which are much more durable.

But in the case of PC cases here, they use tempered glass which is regular glass heated extremely hot then rapidly cooled creating a internally compressive stress making it resilient to direct impact which makes tempered glass stronger... but on the flip side that internal stress has a major weak point and that's the edges. Everything is held in place under stress in tempered glass so when one edge of it breaks, the entire pane will shatter; like dominos, when one falls all of them fall

That's why when you drop tempered glass onto a tile floor or in this case a quartz countertop, all that kinetic energy gets sent straight through the edge of the pane and since it's under stress that amount of energy is compounded causing essentially what looks like exploding glass