I know smartereveryday did a YouTube video on them that’s quite good if you want more info I suggest watching it. It’s because when the molten glass is dropped into the water the outside cools really fast And The heat gets trapped inside the “bulb” and causes pressure to build. That pressure gives the bulb amazing strength, but the smallest deformation of the surface will cause that pressure to be released and BOOM, no more Rupert’s drop.
Neat. That explanation makes sense, to a degree–the cooling is so rapid that pressures that would normally be allowed to escape are trapped in the newly solidified outer layer. Break that layer by damaging the tip and you shift the equilibrium leading to explosive release.
Exactly
If my phd (soon to be) and bs are worth anything, it’s the ability to synthesize coherent hypotheses from half remembered information 🙂
A Middleground 