Glass curtain wall strength

[nkjl]

How strong are glass curtain walls against force from the inside? Or in other words, what would cause one to fail? There's one memorable news story about a man in Philadelphia, I think, demonstrating the strength of the glass and falling through.

[Kelvin]

Failure (in this case failure in strength) is any one of several potential mechanisms related to type of glass, thickness, rate of application of force, magnitude of force, size and distribution of force, nature of supports, spacing, air pressure, wind speed, etc., etc.

Suffice it to say that glass panels are deemed strong enough to prevent all but the most foolhardy Darwin Award recipients from obtaining thier just rewards.