Why does plastic take longer to dry than ceramic or glass?

[XemaSab]

:shrug:

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Plastic is man made. Ceramic and glass is of the earth. I paint

and the plastic paint, acrylic, is the fastest drying. Oils, natural made, takes so long. But, ceramic is of the earth. The dirt. Plastic is not.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Plastic is "of the Earth"

There are some naturally-occurring plastics, like barnacle cement. I think spider webs are also natural plastics. Most plastics are synthesized out of "chains" of simple organic chemicals. Cellulose is used to make celluloid and rayon, and cornstarch is being used to develop a number of plastics that biodegrade rapidly. Sugars are also showing promise for plastic manufacture. All of these substances can be gotten from plants -- which grow in the earth.

Small amounts of glass are produced by lightning strikes, volcanic activity, etc. Nacre, the material that sea shells are composed of, is a ceramic. It takes a fairly high level of technology for humans to produce usable ceramics and glass, similar to that used in iron-age metallurgy.

Plastic got an undeservedly bad reputation. There is no justifying the pollution and destruction caused by our wasteful habits, including using plastic to package every conceivable item, but plastic is far from the demonic substance that many people think it is.

--p!

[billyoc]

2. A little more porous, I think.

The water molecules stick to the plastic longer because of little holes, not quite as smooth a surface.

[kestrel91316]

11. Ding ding ding! I think that's also why they absorb stains/odors.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. I think it's heat

Glass, metal, ceramic, etc., hold heat well. Even small fluctuations will get the molecules jumping.

Plastic doesn't hold heat at all well, so there's nothing to help the water evaporate.

Of course, I could be wrong ...

--p!

[Betsy Ross]

4. Yes, it's a heat conduction thing. n/t

[jamesinca]

5. Brooke I know you just long enough

to wonder why you din't just wipe up the spill instead of setting a stop watch by it? LOL

[yop]

7. surface chemistry

Plastic is hydrophobic, glass and ceramic surfaces are covered in hydrophilic functional groups. Because of this, water beads up on plastic and spreads out to cover glass and ceramic. Beaded up = less surface area = slower evaporation. Spread out = more surface area = faster evaporation.

[soothsayer]

8. Glass remains liquid even when it 'dries'--that's why old windows

run.

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Oddly enough, they don't...

The reason old windows are thicker at the bottom is rather more mundane: Nobody could make really flat glass until fairly recently, and the glaziers usually put the thick end at the bottom to make it more stable.

Old leaded glass windows do bow out with age - but that's the lead bending, not the glass.

[Dogmudgeon]

10. Well! And I had thought it was because glass was a liquid!

A supercooled liquid, but a liquid, no less.

Of course, that was something I came up with myself -- not the glass-is-a-liquid idea, but the "reason" why old glass bows and develops curved "streaks" in it. Liquid flows with gravity, so it made sense to me that old glass would get thicker on the bottom with time.

Sometimes, when I'm wrong, I learn stuff and all.

--p!

[madokie]

12. I believe it is the viscosity of the glass is so high that we know it as a solid

Our house had some old windows from the 30's and I mic'ed the panes and sure enough they were about .002 to .003 thicker on the bottom than at the top. I'm series