Explodeing cups and glasses,

This happened to me once in cooking class way back, but I think what happened was fairly obvious: I either put a very cold glass inside a hot one, or the other way around, and shortly after, SPLODEY!

Things suddenly appearing to decay or descend into chaos after a long time of stability always strike me as odd.

It's usually not as sudden as it appears to be.

Your glasses must have been used in time travel and entropy is catching up. That's what you get for bringing glassware from the 16th century to the present.

Shame on you.

Poltergiest schmoltergiest... it was aliens.

About a month ago our dog was eating from one of my nice bowls (*smacks room mate*) when we suddenly heard that funny noise bowls make when they teeter. You know, that funny vibrate-y noise that gets faster and higher pitched as time goes on that you can make by lifting up one corner, letting go and watching it spin around?

Anyway, we heard a very loud version of that and as we were getting up to check on the situation it exploded. I mean exploded, in all directions. Even all the way across the tile into the entryway, a whole room away.

I can understand the exploding with it rocking, even though the distance it got seems amazing, but I can't figure out what the dog could have done to make it start spinning like crazy. Maybe pick it up with his teeth?

Nah, I like hearing why bad stuff happens to good glasses

Lecktor, it was time-travelling hippie poltergiests - I sent them out to get some brownies... Sorry they broke your glasses, Frostie.

Yeah. I keep that in mind. Kind of like one of those visuals of little cracks building up in a dam before it gives way. Seemingly all at once, but the roots of decay were already there.

Yup, logically what Dianne says makes the most sense to me, with a lot of wear and tear and the right subtle temperature change... Still, 4 hours after... Did you actually hear them break? If you did, I would look into undead hippie-proofing your home at once.

Actually, glass is fairly unstable. It is not really a "solid" as it rarely crystallizes - it's a "supercooled liquid."

The glasses may have not been tempered correctly or there may have been a weakness in the glass when it was either molded or blown. (Hubby is a glass blower and just told me what could have possibly happened )

Well really I didn't see any cracks or smudges on these glasses, could be the way I put them away? I just stack them one on top of another so I don't have to make a dozzen trips across the kitchen to get them put away, been doing that for a while now,

I still think Cascade dishwasher bombs sent their zombies after me, possibley hippies,
but we didn't hear anything break until the glasses exploded,

erm... to take a serious guess?

the dishwasher cause hairline fractures in the said drinking devices - not visible to the eye - but as they were placed inside said cubourd the force of the 'placing down' caused to such lines to conveine and over the next 2 hours slowly go through the entire glasses

when they have consumed the glasses such thing as a truck going by or washing machine (or even heavy footed walking) could cause the final lines holding them together to 'give up' and 'explode' (implosion is doubtful due to the way drinking devices are convected (i cant spell if u havent noticed yet))

the original hairline fracture could be causes by simple taking them out of the dishwasher (hot to cold) - unless your house is at 50*c plus (depending on machine) and as its winter - where its place (by a door? a cold draught could of caught them)

where i used to live had its dishwasher by the backdoor - and one time in winter when the door was open (the freezers in the garage) and we opened up the dishwaser - we lost 2 glasses and a couple of plates instantly (it was vwery vwery cold - heheheheehe) - luckly i now dont suffer from this problem as my dishwasher would refuse to put its hands in water that hot (i wouldnt be able to type!)

but i prefer to go on the premise that the evil space chickens have a sonic device that was listening on to your brainwaves lose aim and hit the glasses by accident