"The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was caused by a rubber O-ring that was below its glass transition temperature and thus could not flex adequately to form a proper seal around one of the two solid rocket boosters."
Is this really a true statement? Or at least highly misleading? Surely the O-rings do not normally operate above their glass transition temperature, do they?
baccala@freesoft.org 22 Oct 2005
I think that article should note that in spin glass physics the word glass transition is used to describe a second order phase transition. Furthermore the term ideal glass transition refers to a hypothetical low temperature second order phase transition in supercooled liquids.