What happens to clay when it is fired?

[mummytait]

Presumably there is a reaction which permanently alters the clay when it reaches a certain temperature.

[Clanad]

This article gives a fairly in-depth description of the process:
http://www.lakesidepottery.com/HTML%20Text/Tip s/Clay%20drying%20and%20firing%20process.htm

[mummytait]

Thnaks Clanad, That's great, Do you know all this stuff or do you look it up as a kind of personal challange? Either way have you seen my question about plaster? it's in a smilar vein.

[mummytait]

I thinks it's in science

[Clanad]

I've provided an answer for the plaster question.

In answer toyour query... I dunno... a lot of the knowledge, especially about mundane information, has been absorbed over the years through environment,(western U.S. ranching requiring self reliance), employment (airline pilot for more years than I'd like to count) and a general interest in those things I don't know. Mrs. C says I'm a walking compendium of absolutely useless knowledge... A lot of the information has a seed of "oh, I remember that" to it and I'm thankful to available sources to either confirm my rememberance or remind me it's mixed up with something else in the grey matter. Some of it's "gee, I don't really know that", and as long as I'm looking it up for myself, I may as well go ahead and share it here... Thanks for asking!