I want to know the physics explanation for why my dash cam's suction cup...

...won't stick to the windshield when it's cold, but works fine once the windshield has had time to warm up.
Tagged:

Comments

  • kill living beings
    as you know, glasses are amorphous solids, that is they lack a regular crystal structure. heating glass allows a microscopic amount of the molecules to flow like a liquid, which is just enough for it to infiltrate the cup and allow a tighter vacuum seal.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Is this you, Tzetze?

    image
  • Stuff is less flexible when it's cold usually. Probably the cold windshield cools off the suction cup itself until it's too brittle to form a good seal?

    Apparently this is a common question though, when I tried to Google to see if what I said made sense I got "suction cup cold windshield" as a suggested search pretty quickly.
  • Also I'd have got in first but someone on the bus bumped against my arm and somehow caused me to log out??
  • kill living beings
    i don't know who that is and i haven't had my nose amputated
  • image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.

    Is this you, Tzetze?


    image
    image
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I don't remember Syaoran being this cute before??
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    inb4 @Section42L tells me that Syaoran was always cute
  • We can do anything if we do it together.
    Nah, he got cuter to me over time, too. :P
  • I have cut a caper with the dancing mad god

    Stuff is less flexible when it's cold usually. Probably the cold windshield cools off the suction cup itself until it's too brittle to form a good seal?

    Apparently this is a common question though, when I tried to Google to see if what I said made sense I got "suction cup cold windshield" as a suggested search pretty quickly.

    This is exactly why suction cups don't work in cold weather. They really on the flexibility of the cup to form the seal, and when they lose that you just have a piece of rubber that doesn't do anything.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    See, I would kind of expect that if I'd been keeping the suction cup in the cold, but I brought it out from the warm house and put it in the car and evidently...just getting it in contact with the cold windshield cooled it enough to make it inflexible.
  • I have cut a caper with the dancing mad god
    Yep, it doesn't take much. Suction cups are pretty thin and soft to be sufficiently flexible to seal, and don't require much cold to remove that flexibility. I mean, think about how cold your hands feel when you touch cold glass even briefly. 
Sign In or Register to comment.