Question

Bradley decided to put a glass of water into the freezer, as he thought it would cool the water more quickly than the refrigerator. Bradley began to watch TV and forgot about the water for many hours. When he finally remembered, he was surprised to see that the glass had shattered in the freezer. Which of these best describes why this occurred?

Answer 1

I believe it is because the glass has a smaller coefficient of linear expansion than the water. The glass undergoes thermal expansion and thus when it heats up, it expands and when it cools down it contracts. The inside and the outside of the glass does not reach an equilibrium temperature very quickly since the glass has a low thermal conductivity. The surface of the glass rapidly contracts while the inner surface is expanding which causes the glass to crack.