Nº 017 · Physics · 45 sec

Does old window glass flow downward?

Medieval stained-glass window of Chartres Cathedral showing a table scene
Photo: Vassil · Public domain · Original

Your guess

Why are old panes often thicker at the bottom?

Uneven from the start

Flat glass used to be blown by hand, for example as cylinders. Such panes were wavy and of uneven thickness. Truly flat float glass only became widespread in the 1960s.

Worked out

1nanometerper billion years – at most

For medieval glass from Westminster Abbey dating from 1268, a team calculated in 2017 how fast it could flow. Even in the worst case: one nanometer in a billion years. No human could ever observe that.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: Glass (accessed 2026-10-05)
  2. Wikipedia (German): Glas (accessed 2026-10-05)

Image credits

  • “Vitrail Chartres 210209 07.jpg”, Vassil, Public domain