SPOILER ALERT!
If you haven’t seen Squid Game yet, stop reading, get on Netflix and watch it!
For those who did finish watching the series, then you watched the gut-wrenching episode about the Glass Bridge Game.
The game itself was a probability game, giving the first player a 1:2 probability of surviving the first step on the glass and the probability of the subsequent players increasing based on the glass step decisions of the previous players.
The game starts with 16 players and ends with 3 players who successfully manage to only step on the stronger glass within 16minutes. The bridge itself has 18 steps, and each player must go in a pre-determined order choosing to step on two sheets of glass which at first glance look indistinguishable.
The rules are simple, jump from one glass to the other to make it across the bridge; the catch, on each step, one sheet of glass is made from tempered glass, which can hold the weight of two players, while the other is regular glass, which drops the player to their death.
So, how do we beat this game? We need to understand the difference between the two types of glasses.
Tempered glass vs regular glass
A 2019 study describes how tempered glass is four to ten times stronger than regular glass. The reason is because tempered glass goes through the tempering process, treated with extreme heat then cooled by running cool air through it making it incredibly strong and unable to shutter. A great example of tempered glass are car windshields, that make it difficult for it shutter unless something passes through with extreme force.
The games take an optimistic turn, when the glassmaker can tell the difference between the two glasses. He looks closely at the glass in the lights and the tempered glass looks a little wavy and this works well until the game makers, kill the lights and they are back to probability guessing.
So how can you tell the two apart if you were in the game?
1. Tempered Glass has smooth edges
Due to the extreme tempering process, tempered glass has smooth edges that regular glass does not have.
2. A Sandblast marker
Tempered glass usually has a marker from the sandblasting process and the edge of the glass.
3. Tiny Imperfections
It can show some tiny imperfections on the surface, because sometimes during the tempering process, small particles can be melted to the glass or scratch the surface, therefore, giving it that imperfect look.
Fortunately, we will never have to put this newly gained knowledge to the test, but now you can tell if your glass is regular or tempered and that might help with deciding on where, and what to install in your homes!