Why Do Drinking Glasses Break Suddenly?

[Kuze]

Hi, As the title said, I had 3 glasses store water in my room near the window. I drank 1 and a half of 3 glasses water and go to sleep. But after about 4 or 5 hours when i still sleep i hear some loud sound and woke up, I saw 1 empty glass broke in half and 1 still had some water broke. The water inside those glasses is cool tape water and the room temperature at that time is about 20 degrees ( cause it was around 2am). I know that many people asked this question but I think that my case is different from them cause I always use cool water and never bring those glasses near the sun light. Sorry if my English is too bad cause English is not my mother language.

 

[davenn]

and the room temperature at that time is about 20 degrees

C or F ?

 

[berkeman]

Hi, As the title said, I had 3 glasses store water in my room near the window. I drank 1 and a half of 3 glasses water and go to sleep. But after about 4 or 5 hours when i still sleep i hear some loud sound and woke up, I saw 1 empty glass broke in half and 1 still had some water broke. The water inside those glasses is cool tape water and the room temperature at that time is about 20 degrees ( cause it was around 2am). I know that many people asked this question but I think that my case is different from them cause I always use cool water and never bring those glasses near the sun light. Sorry if my English is too bad cause English is not my mother language.

Welcome to the PF.

Can you post a picture of where the glasses were, and what they look like now that they are broken? How old are the glasses? Do you have roommates? Do you ever play jokes on each other?

 

[Kuze]

Hi, Firstly, It is 20 Degreee in C scale. Andfor the second question, sorry but I have thrown it away cause it will be very dangerous to keep broken glass around. And I live in my own room alone, I bought those glasses about 1 year or 2 years ago. I wil describe it for you guys, the first glass was empty and it broke in half, the bottom is okay but the top had many cracks. The second one broke just a part of the top, about 10cm long. And I don't know why but the places where it broke apart are not sharp.

 

[256bits]

Hi, Firstly, It is 20 Degreee in C scale. Andfor the second question, sorry but I have thrown it away cause it will be very dangerous to keep broken glass around. And I live in my own room alone, I bought those glasses about 1 year or 2 years ago. I wil describe it for you guys, the first glass was empty and it broke in half, the bottom is okay but the top had many cracks. The second one broke just a part of the top, about 10cm long. And I don't know why but the places where it broke apart are not sharp.

Is anything else out of place from where you left it when you went to sleep?

"i hear some loud sound and wake up" signifies something.
Perhaps a cause and effect relationship might be in order, "I woke up and heard a loud sound.". Would it be safe to say that a sleeping person can be awakened by a disturbance, but would not be able to identify the disturbance, unless it continues to some extent after the awakening giving the senses and brain sufficient time to become aware.
So what you think you heard may not be the actual breaking of the glasses, but some of the pieces falling to the floor. Even so, that does not account for the "loud" part. Look for something on the floor, under your bed, in the corner, that if falling onto glasses, would break then, causing a sound for you to quickly awaken, for you to then hear a loud sound as the object hits the desk, counter, window ledge, floor, which you then attribute as the disturbance which woke you. Anything not hanging from the ceiling anymore?

( Other than that, your cat did it. )

 

[Kuze]

For what you have said, I think there was nothing like that. Because I put those glasses on a space next to the window and there is nothing around there. At first, I think that may be I kicked it when I sleep but after looking at how it broke I think that It was not the case here because if i kicked it it should reflect after hit the window and fly onto my bed. But those glasses just broke and laid as where i put it, nothing scattered just 4 pieces of glasses. Also I've check again after I wake up (5:00am) but nothing was falling under my bed or anything like that, If you need a picture of where i put it please tell me.

 

[Kuze]

Addition: After checking the place i put those glasses carefully, I've seen about 6 or 7 tiny piece of glasses.

 

[Kuze]

By the way, My bed is next to the window so it can't fall onto the ground, If it does fall it must fall on my bed.

 

[Jehannum]

Do you live in a country that is prone to earthquakes or tremors?

 

[rumborak]

A maybe more mundane explanation might also be sleepwalking.

 

[wud-wurks]

Do live near any RF transmissions, particularly microwave?

 

[berkeman]

Do live near any RF transmissions, particularly microwave?

Do you have reason to believe that this could cause drinking glasses to break?

 

[CWatters]

It's odd that two glasses broke at exactly the same time. I think you turned over and accidentally knocked them.

 

[malemdk]

I have experienced the same thing , which happened when a bottle of honey broke into pieces in the morning no temp variation , just it happened,
it might be due to a defect in the glass itself ,same explanation applicable in this case also.

 

[Kuze]

It can't be kicked because I put 2 glasses next to each other and when i wake up the one break in half is lie down and the other one is still standing. For more specific, I put those together so that mean it can't be separated like that. If i really kicked it, all the glasses should be all falling down not 1 stand and 1 fall. Ah, Sorry because i forgot to say this. Those glasses didn't break as the same time cause the one still standing broke when i going to sleep again.

 

[Kuze]

Do live near any RF transmissions, particularly microwave?

My room is pretty far from the kitchen and at night only clock and the bedlight was still working. I didn't charge anything at night too.

 

[Kuze]

Do you live in a country that is prone to earthquakes or tremors?

In general, I live in Australia and I have never experience those things before.

 

[Khashishi]

What did the loud sound sound like?
I think some animal got in and broke them.

 

[OCR]

I think some animal got in and broke them.

Or, maybe a bird... they can also make some really strange sounds...[COLOR=#black].[/COLOR] lol

 

[Kuze]

As I said, I live in my room alone, So that mean I don't have any pet and the sound i heard clearly is the glass break sound, My window can't be open so that why I'm so confused. I don't know what broke the glasses and if there are any effects from weather, temperature or many even gravity... I really want to know what cause this.

 

[OCR]

As I said, I live in my room alone, So that mean I don't have any pet and the sound i heard clearly is the glass break sound, My window can't be open so that why I'm so confused. I don't know what broke the glasses and if there are any effects from weather, temperature or many even gravity... I really want to know what cause this.

I apologize for my post #19, Kuze...

I was just doing a little spoofing of Khashishi... and I apologize to him also... sorry, won't happen again.

 

[Kuze]

No, don't worry, I think that i should explain the situation for everyone in order to solve this problem easier and when i see that post i remember that i haven't said any thing about animal yet.

 

[shihab-kol]

It could be due to some sound , they often break glass and you say you definitely heard a sound.
So, perhaps this is the cause

 

[Kuze]

My house have 3 people live in ( included me ), If there is any sound that was strong enough or loud or whatever big enough to break a glass, I think the other people in my house will hear it, cause 3 room is next to each other. And the sound is just glass breaking sound, the sound that you always hear when a glass break, And in the morning when i wake up, they didn't say anything about the sound, so I concluded that was only the glass breaking sound and the thing that cause this must be near the glass enough to break the glass without causing too much noise. No one in the house know that those glasses were broken until i tell them.

 

[Kuze]

Note : I think that the sound wasn't too loud but my senses is really good, I wake up nearly as the same time as the glass break, And because i sleep near the glass so I think I would hear it louder than the others. And i found a piece of glass under my bed, I don't know how it went there because the height from the ground to the place that i put those glasses on is pretty big, about 1m or more, but the piece of glass had nothing like crack. As i said from the #1 post, this piece of glass edge is not sharp too, I did try to cut my hand with it but I don't even cause me any damage, I just like I try to hit my self with a toy, no shattered glass under my bed. As far as my notification is right, I saw those glass fall with a completely suprising angle. I think I will try to draw with my memory.

 

[Kuze]

http://imgur.com/a/MnNCr And the break part from glass 2 is what i have found earlier.
http://imgur.com/a/MnNCr
sorry because i don't know how to insert image

 

[Baluncore]

Applying Occam's scientific razor; I suspect that one glass broke spontaneously due to residual stress in the glass. The crack would have propagated at the speed of sound in glass, which could have provided a directional sound wave that might wake you. Your ability to wake quickly would be dependent on your sleep state at that time. The breaking glass may have thrown one part to bounce off the other glass and cracked that other glass, but not immediately dislodged the break, which you only discovered later.

There are a few people who call me when they have riddles like that presented in this thread. When analysed scientifically the reported observations do not seem to make sense. The problem comes in working out which observations were factual and which were imagined. Humans are good at filling in unknowns by wishful interpolation between sparse facts. I know that those who call me may be psychotic and when their world doesn't add up and gets too confusing, they call me. I see it as my job to work out if their observations are real, or if they need to get back onto their anti-psychotic medication. Normal paranoia is very common in humans, it keeps the species alive in a hostile environment. The extension of paranoia to psychosis is also much more common than is reported.

Occam's Razor always permits a rational scientific explanation. But that explanation may have complexities resulting from incorrect observations due to sleep-state, false memory, or a psychotic component, in which case this thread might represent the first valuable step in a diagnosis. It is also possible that the observer is a sophisticated troll, or a skilled fiction writer. Anything is possible.

To be certain, more information is needed. But it is no longer available for the reported event.
Hopefully a scientific explanation is the answer.

 

[Kuze]

hmm, Firstly, I don't think my ability to wake quickly would be dependent on my sleep state, cause it was the same for the rest of my senes, no matter how long I've slept or how deep the sleep is, as long as I can hear or feel something, I will wake up no matter what. And due to the position of those glasses I don't think any part of those glasses was thrown due to other glass break, and at that time the glass which had lied down doesn't break anymore than the 2 half, and the other glass broke part was lie on the other side. And when I woke up, I did turn on the light to look around then go back to sleep, cause it is really scary when something break near you but you don't know what happened. If it was something normal like temperature or pressure I still can understand but the temperature of my room and the water left inside the glass were the same since now is about middle of summer so that can't be temperature or pressure.

 

[Baluncore]

That seems to leave you with false memory, psychosis, troll or fiction writer. Any other suggestions?

In general, I live in Australia and I have never experience those things before.

Maybe consider: Drop Bears https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear

I don't think my ability to wake quickly would be dependent on my sleep state, cause it was the same for the rest of my senes, no matter how long I've slept or how deep the sleep is, as long as I can hear or feel something, I will wake up no matter what.

It must be quite difficult to observe yourself not waking if you sleep through a sound that does not wake you.

 

[Kuze]

As I've said before, I'm living in the city and i think everyone must lock their door before go to sleep so I don't think that Drop Bear has any relation in this case, But I think that the slightest noise i can wake up from is footstep. And the most suspective things are how those glass break and its position. As the picture I've posted before, I put it next to each other, 1 empty, 1 half room temperature tape water. If there is somethings that can break one of those glass, it should break the whole 2 glasses because they were next to each other. The only thing I can think about is some type of wave or sound that are in the lower or higher the human ear frequency so that I can't hear them and if that true, I would conclue that somethings can make those noise which is enough to break glass is wandering around my house. That is my idea.

 

[Kuze]

And the temperature isn't drop so dramatically, It was only about 1-5 degree different since i went to sleep.And the room temperature was never exceed 37 C degree. And those glasses were never put on the place that was directly hit by sunlight.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Some everyday drinking glasses are made of highly stressed moulded glass (like the toughened glass you get for windows. A relatively small scratch or impact can cause them to shatter into thousands of slightly (safely) rounded off shards. It's not that uncommon for one to spontaneously shatter after a lifetime of use and associated stresses. But for two to go off - that's weird, particularly under the circs you describe.

 

[Kuze]

That is why i come here and ask, If these glasses were shattered into thousand shards I still can understand but this time I only got 4 piece of glasses from 2 glasses.

 

[Drakkith]

I doubt you'll find a satisfactory answer. There's just no way for anyone to know enough of the details since we weren't there and you yourself were asleep at the time.

 

[Kuze]

I think that I've said this before but if you need any information just ask, i will answer as much as i can. So if you want any detail just ask me.