This is no less than 1/8 of the blue Pyrex dish that exploded when I tried to add water to it while it was still very hot from continuous, direct heat.

See, I should’ve learned my lesson a few years ago when I witnessed how a mere touch of cool air made the glass door of my parents’ oven explode all over the kitchen. My dad taught me this, and I learned it in physics class: tempered glass shatters entirely and abruptly when breaking, unlike regular glass, which will break in shards and more gradually.

Extreme temperatures or stress can shatter and entire object made of tempered glass. At least, that’s what I learned. Contrary to what I did tonight, you’re not supposed to use it on the stovetop or in the broiler. The funny thing is that I knew this — but I completely forgot while using a makeshift system to steam my puto (no, not like the Spanish profanity, but the Filipino cake). See, I knew better — I knew I was doing something wrong — but it didn’t strike me that I was supposed to use a tin, not a Pyrex dish, on the stove top when improvising a steamer. Instead, I watched the dishes carefully, up until the water ran out of the Pyrex dish and I tried to add more water — as soon as I tipped the Pyrex measuring cup and began to pour water, I knew I’d made a mistake. Before I could do anything about it, the Pyrex dish burst.

I was really, really lucky I didn’t get hurt. I was really lucky that my face was not injured. I was really lucky that although I found glass shards in my shirt and cardigan, none of it had hurt me.

As my housemate and I were cleaning it up, I explained to him what I’d learned. He didn’t seem to understand what I had said, so I was nearly convinced that maybe I was wrong about the vaguely scientific explanation I’d blurted out. But like any good modern-day researcher, I turned to Google.

After the cleanup, I hopped online to see just what I could turn up about exploding Pyrex dishes. I remember that after my parents’ oven door exploded, I learned from my dad that even though tempered glass is technically stronger than regular glass, it can still be rather dangerous. Was I wrong? After a bit of searching, I found one poorly-written Consumerist article that blamed an exploding Pyrex dish on what type of material is now being used for Pyrex; I’m not sure I buy that as the sole reason for a Pyrex dish to explode, and I’m sure it could be a contributing factor, but I believe that it’s more about how tempered glass reacts to temperature, not the kind of material used in making it. Furthermore, according to this source, colored dishes are more susceptible to breaking than clear Pyrex dishes. Okay, maybe. But if we believed everything we found on the Internet, then Jeff Goldblum and George Clooney both died in tragic falls in New Zealand while filming on location…

Unsatisfied, I dug around a bit more and found a better explanation that did not include the soda-lime factor in why Pyrex dishes break. (On top of that, it jives with what I vaguely remember from physics class and my dad’s little lesson tempered glass: extreme temperature change can cause Pyrex to ‘explode’.) I’m inclined to go with that one. I’m no scientist, and while I did well in Advanced High School Physics, I can’t say for sure that it’s what happened. However, I’m pretty confident that this is the closest and most accurate explanation.

Have you seen Pyrex explode? What were you doing that caused it to explode? And why do you think it explodes?

Personally, I think it’s a bullshit excuse to blame the manufacturer entirely when something like this happens. They tell us not to use it on a stove top. They warn not to use it in a broiler. If people paid attention in physics, maybe they’d understand the properties of tempered glass. (Hey, there are a lot of “if people paid attention…” lines out there, mind you.) I’m not saying that Pyrex is made perfectly — it certainly isn’t, and I’m sure apparent cheap manufacturing contributes — but if you do something you’ve been warned should not be done, don’t you dare think it wasn’t your own stupid fault.