CD shatter if you spin it fast enough

[Erdrick Holmes]

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/dig...ges/77606.html

Apperently if you spin a CD at about 32,000 RPMs it will shatter in about 1,000 pieces. I saw this happen on TV today but the question is how does spinning a CD make it explode like that?

[edczxcvbnm]

The same concept if you spin something too fast that is on a piece of string...it will eventually break off. The centripital force being applied to the object is too much for it to with stand and it just gets ripped apart.

Its not like plastic is all that strong either and 32,000 is extremely fast. Your engine in your car isn't pushed that hard.

[Yamaneko]

Considering that a car on a freeway going 65mph tends to reach 35,000 RPM tops, I can't see why a CD would not explode.

[eestlinc]

and when would this knowledge ever be useful or pertinent?

[Yamaneko]

Obviously when ninjas are throwing AOL cds at you.

[escobert]

Well if you want to dispose of CDs it may help.

[eestlinc]

so never

and when i need to dispose of a cd I put it in the trash can.

[The Man]

Originally posted by Yamaneko
Obviously when ninjas are throwing AOL cds at you.

Gotta watch out for those ninjas. And those AOL CDs. Man, those can be deadly.

[escobert]

But it would be more fun to blow them up. Don't ya think?

[eestlinc]

no

[escobert]

Oh ok. I think it would.

[The Man]

eestlinc knows the score.

[crono_logical]

Hmm, maybe that's why I haven't heard of any drives faster than 52x

[DocFrance]

There's also the matter of heat. You see, when a machine is spinning something, this is called shaft work. This shaft work contributes to the energy of the system - the CD, in this case. Because energy is conserved, this shaft work in must be converted to some other energy out (let's see... closed system, non-steady, non-adiabatic, rigid, non-isolated, no change in potential or kinetic energy). So the massive amount of shaft work is converted into the internal energy of the CD - the CD's heat. The CD is heated up by nearly a hundred kilojoules, and promptly explodes, because the CD's component molecules have to much energy to be held together by their normal bonds.

(Thank you, Aero 241)

[Meat Puppet]

Anyone got a picture of somebody who has been spinned so hard they exploded, much like a CD would?