Glass is an amorphous material made by rapidly cooling molten ingredients such as silica sand, soda ash, and limestone. It has various properties including transparency, hardness, and high melting temperatures. Glass is manufactured through a process of mixing ingredients, melting them in furnaces over 1500°C, forming the liquid into shapes, annealing to relieve internal stresses, and finishing. There are many varieties of glass developed for different purposes through variations in ingredients, including soda-lime glass for windows, borosilicate glass for chemical resistance, and lead glass for high refractive index.