ITHICA, NY—Last Thursday, Justin Robertson, 19, was detailing his car, a 2001 Honda Civic, when he noticed the rear passenger window wasn’t closing properly. He carefully turned the manual window lever, rolling it up and down several times only to discover that the glass panel was popping out of the track about 6 inches from the top. Thinking it must have warped slightly, he parked it where the hot west sun hits that side of the car and gently tried to bend the glass back into place, with no success. As he exerted the force of his whole body against the window, it cracked and he slipped, making a 4-inch gash in his forearm.
Fortunately his father, Gary Robertson, 44, was home and immediately rushed him to the clinic. Justin, who holds an associate's degree from a local community college, put pressure on the gushing wound, and bemoaned, “What just happened?" His father stared blankly at him for a moment and responded, “You just put all of your weight into a thin sheet of glass, you moron.”
Slowly making sense of the experience on the drive to the hospital, it occurred to the young Robertson that perhaps the force he exerted onto the glass sheet was the cause of its collapse. As he waited at the hospital to see a doctor, it donned on him that glass may, in fact, be a material unlike the sturdy and pliable metal he has worked with in other settings. But it wasn't until he was in the room with the doctor that all became clear.
While stitching the wound, the doctor listened to Robertson's story intently and said, matter-of-factly, “You know that glass doesn’t bend... right?” It was this statement that finally enlightened the convenience store clerk and graphic novel enthusiast. In that moment, Robertson comprehended that not only was glass physically different than metal, but it also behaves differently when physical forces act upon it.
He met the doctor's inquisitive gaze, and replied, “Yeah, well I know that now. ”