Would it be possible to make a gun rifle and breach out of high-strength glass, like maybe an inch thick? The slow motion footage from something like that would be sick I think.
— Misha – Visiting the bay area Nov 19 – Jan 3 (@drethelin) September 16, 2022
Nope, that would not work. Thickness of glass wouldn’t matter here. It’s the fracture toughness and crack propagation that matter. 200-grade steel has a fracture toughness index of 175, while glass has a fracture toughness index of only around 1. Huge difference. You just can’t make a standard gun out of glass.