amorphous solid

Table of Contents

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

How to properly care for contact lenses

Figure 1: The state of atomic motion.

Figure 2: The atomic arrangements in (A) a crystalline solid, (B) an amorphous solid, and (C) a gas.

Figure 3: The two general cooling paths by which a group of atoms can condense. Route 1 is the path to the crystalline state; route 2 is the rapid-quench path to the amorphous solid state.

Figure 7: Two basic models for the atomic-scale structure of amorphous solids.

Read Next

Environmental problem of plastic rubbish pollution in ocean

Plastic Disaster: How Your Bags, Bottles, and Body Wash Pollute the Oceans

Woman wearing hijab drinking bottle of water outdoors

Pro and Con: Bottled Water Ban

Discover

Aphrodite. Greek mythology. Sculpture. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

12 Greek Gods and Goddesses

Hindu Holi Festival celebrations with colored water, powder and colorful flower petals thrown over celebrants at a Hindu temple in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India on March 24, 2021.

Holi: Festival of Colors

African Americans demonstrating for voting rights in front of the White House as police and others watch, March 12, 1965. One sign reads, "We demand the right to vote everywhere." Voting Rights Act, civil rights.

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

airplane in flight (plane, aircraft, flying)

7 Puzzling Plane Disappearances

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who formulated the Four Freedoms.

7 Alphabet Soup Agencies that Stuck Around

Close up of periodic table, focus on nickel, copper, zinc, palladium, silver, cadmium

When Was the Periodic Table Invented?

Young boys working in a thread spinning mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. Boys are so small they have to climb onto the spinning frame to reach and fix broken threads and put back empty bobbins. Child labor. Industrial revolution

The Rise of the Machines: Pros and Cons of the Industrial Revolution

amorphous solid: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	noncrystalline solid • amorphous material • amorphous substance • noncrystalline material

Photos and Videos

Figure 1: The state of atomic motion.

Figure 2: The atomic arrangements in (A) a crystalline solid, (B) an amorphous solid, and (C) a gas.

Figure 3: The two general cooling paths by which a group of atoms can condense. Route 1 is the path to the crystalline state; route 2 is the rapid-quench path to the amorphous solid state.

Figure 7: Two basic models for the atomic-scale structure of amorphous solids.

How to properly care for contact lenses

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

plastic glass solid solution vitreous state continuous random-network model random close-packing model random-coil model glass transition radial distribution function omission solid solution crystal quasicrystal elasticity hole adsorption permeability corrosion surface grain

Key People

Sir Nevill F. Mott at the ceremony with his Nobel Prize for Physics, 1977.

Sir Nevill F. Mott

British physicist

John H. Van Vleck

American physicist

Bertram Eugene Warren

American crystallographer