People Are Just Realising What The Little Black Dots On Train Windows Are For, And Huh

Train windowLife is full of little mysteries, like why dashboards are called dashboards and what flavour “cola” and “red velvet” really are. And during a recent Instagram scroll, yet another commonly-ignored quandary presented itself to me.“Why does the train have the little dots by the window?”, engineering trivia expert Engineered Against Your Will asked in a video.After all, they explained in their caption, they’re “Not just for decoration.”What do the black dots on train windows do?First of all, they’re not exclusive to trains – you’ll find them on car panes too, especially at the front and back of some vehicles. And as the engineering enthusiast pointed out, they’re designed to fight “thermal stress so your window doesn’t shatter in a heatwave.” Technically called “frits,” the little dots are a “baked-on... pattern that’s there because the glass and the metal frame around it expands at different rates.” The dotted pattern “distributes heat a bit more evenly, so the glass doesn’t crack.” Though the poster describes the dots as “ceramic,” Autoglaze explained they’re actually painted black enamel, a ceramic coating.These “actually help distribute temperature evenly to lessen optical distortion or ‘lensing,’” the vehicle glass site continues.“This happens when the frit band (the solid black one) heats up much faster than the windscreen’s glass, creating an optical distortion that makes either straight lines look curved or bowed inwards toward the centre.”The spots, which fade as they go further from the edge of the glass, “help lessen this phenomenon by dissipating the heat and spreading it out evenly.” View this post on InstagramA post shared by Engineered against your will (@engineered.against.your.will)Are there any other benefits to black dots on windscreens and windows?Yes. They can help to maintain the sealant used to attach the glass to its frame by stopping the sun’s heat from melting the glue. They also provide a rougher surface to help the adhesive stick better. But yes, temperature regulation is a huge part of their function.“Finally knowing this is very satisfying to my inner child,” a commenter wrote under the Instagram user’s original post. “I ALWAYS WONDERED!” another Instagrammer wrote.Who knew so much engineering went into those tiny specks...Related...People Are Just Realising What The Brush On Escalators Is For, And No, It's Not To Clean Your ShoesPeople Are Just Realising The 'Correct' Way To Eat Chocolate Digestives, And We're All Doing It WrongPeople Are Just Realising Why So Many 24-Hour Supermarkets Disappeared, And Huh

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