Can Calcite Scratch Glass? (EXPLAINED)

No, calcite cannot scratch glass.

Calcite has a Mohs Scale of Hardness (SOH) of 3, and can scratch any material below it.

Glass has a SOH of 5.5. So, calcite can’t scratch glass.

Boom.

In the article, you’ll learn more about glass and calcite, to understand how and why calcite cannot scratch glass.

Can Calcite Scratch Glass? (THE FACTS)

What is Calcite?

Calcite, a rock-forming mineral, has a chemical composition of CaCO3.

Calcite is very common and can be found in all types of rocks, including metamorphic and sedimentary.

It is considered a “ubiquitous” mineral by some geologists, meaning it can be found anywhere.

Limestone and marble are both made up mainly of calcite.

Calcite basically occurs nearly everywhere and makes up a large part of the Earth’s crust.

Calcites are one of the most important carbon repositories in the world.

Because of its uniqueness, Calcite is one of mankind’s most used minerals.

Calcite is used in construction materials, abrasives, and agricultural soil treatment. It is used to make pigments, pharmaceuticals, and other uses.

It is used in more ways than any other mineral.

Widespread uses of calcite

Calcite is used in construction

Calcite is consumed primarily by the construction industry in the form of limestone and marble.

Folks have used these rocks over millennia in mortar.

They’ve also been used as dimension stones.

Many of the pyramids in Egypt and Latin America were constructed using limestone blocks.

Today, marble and rough limestone are important materials in prestigious architecture.

Calcite in the neutralization of acids

Calcite can be used to neutralize acids in many ways.

Marbles and limestones have been used for hundreds of years to neutralize acids in the soil.

We heat calcite to produce lime, which works even faster to neutralize the acids in soil.

Calcite is used in the chemical industry as an acid neutralizer.

We use crushed limestone to neutralize streams affected by acid drainage from mines.

In medicine, the use of calcium carbonate, which is derived from high-purity marbles and limestones, is possible.

It can be mixed with sugar or flavoring to make chewable tablets that neutralize stomach acids.

Many medications use calcium carbonate to treat medical problems to do with digestion.

Calcite in monuments and statuary

Marble is a beautiful and easy-to-work rock that’s been used for sculptures and monuments for many years.

Marble’s low porosity makes it resistant to freezing and thawing outside.

It is also easy to work because of its low hardness.

It’s been used in big projects such as the building of the pyramids of Egypt, yet also in objects as tiny as small figurines.

It’s used in many ways, including as a marker for a cemetery, benches, benches, stairways, and mantles.

What is glass?

Glass is a tricky thing to understand.

It can protect us with its strength or get smashed to smithereens with its weakness.

It is made of opaque sand, but it is completely transparent.

It behaves almost like a solid material, but it is also a strange liquid disguised as such.

Glass can be found everywhere you look.

Most rooms will have glass windows, and if they don’t, maybe a mirror or a lightbulb.

Not only is glass one of the oldest materials ever created by humans, it is also one of our most versatile.

You might not believe this (but you should because we’re telling you 😉), but glass is made from liquid sand.

When we heat ordinary sand–which, of course, is made of silicon dioxide–it melts into a liquid.

Now you might wonder why beaches aren’t mostly glass.

The answer is, sand doesn’t melt until it is heated to temperatures of 3090°F (1700°C) or higher, which is really warm!

The molten sand doesn’t go back to the same yellow color it was when it cools.

Instead, it undergoes a transformation that gives it a completely new inner structure.

It doesn’t matter how cool you make the sand. It never sets into a solid.

It becomes a frozen liquid, or what material scientists call an amorphous substance.

It is a liquid and solid hybrid, with some of its crystalline order and some of its molecular randomness.

Because of its many valuable properties, glass is a very popular choice for our homes.

It is transparent and easy to form when it is molten. It also resists heat well. Glass can be recycled many times.

Interesting facts about glass

How is glass made?

In 1945, US scientists tested an atomic bomb prototype in the New Mexico desert.

The explosion made the sand near the impact area glasslike.

Glass can be made in all sorts of ways, with some methods needing more heat than others.

Mixing sand with soda ash, waste glass, limestone, and heating in a furnace is what happens in commercial glass plants.

While the soda lowers the sand’s melting point, it also produces glass that will dissolve in water, so limestone is added.

Soda-lime silica glass is the end product. It is the glass that we see every day.

After the sand has melted, it can be poured into molds to create bottles, glasses, etc., or “floated,” which is when it is placed on top of a large vat of molten metal to form flat sheets of glass.

Sometimes, unusual glass containers can still be made by “blowing”.

An open pipe is slowly rotated to create a “gob” of molten glass.

It is then wrapped around the pipe.

The pipe’s open ends are exposed to the air, which causes the glass to explode like a balloon.

You can create amazing shapes with skillful turning and blowing.

The process used by glassmakers varies depending on the type and size of glass being made.

To make green-tinted glasses, iron and other chemicals are added to the molten mixture and enriched with boron oxide, which makes oven-proof glasses.

This glass is commonly known as PYREX(r).

The addition of lead oxide creates fine crystal glass that is easier to cut.

Unusual types of glass obviously require special manufacturing processes.

Bulletproof glass is made of a sandwich consisting of layers of plastic and glass that have been bonded together.

To make toughened glass for car windshields, we quickly cool molten glass. Colored glass is created by adding metallic compounds to the glass during its molten phase.

Is glass a liquid or a solid?

Fight, fight, fight!

No, there’s no need for that.

Believe it or not though, the answer is, “Both–and neither!”.

There are many opinions about how to refer to materials like glass, which can appear to be liquids in certain ways but solids in others.

There are many types of solids with very different structures.

Not all solids behave the same. Consider a lump made of iron and a chunk of rubber.

Both are solids, yet rubber differs markedly from iron.

Rubber and iron both have different atoms and molecules inside.

Iron is a regular or crystal structure, while rubber is a long chain of loosely linked molecules.

Think of water.

Water is a solid and expands when frozen, yet liquid at room temperature.

It is not possible to categorize everything as solid, liquid, or gas.

Not all solids, fluids, and gases behave the same way in an easy-to-understand way, and glass is one of the weirdest of the lot.