How do sound proof and bulletproof glasses work? – DH
Sound proof glass uses several separate layers of glass to make it difficult for sound to move from one room to another. Each time sound passes through a surface and experiences a change in speed, some of the sound reflects. Sound travels much more slowly in air than in glass, so with each transition into or out of a glass pane, most of the sound is reflected backward. If two rooms are separated by 3 or 4 sheets of glass, each carefully sealed into place so that there are no holes for sound to leak through, the amount of sound that can make it through the overall window will be very small. Most of the sound will be reflected.
Bulletproof glass is actually a multi-layered sandwich of glass and plastic—it’s like the front windshield of a car, but with many more layers. When a bullet hits the surface of the sandwich, it begins to tear into the layers. But the bullet loses momentum before it manages to burrow all the way through to the final layers. The bullet’s energy and momentum are transferred harmlessly to the layers of glass and plastic.