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US $5.50 End Date: Friday Feb-10-2012 7:58:35 PST Buy It Now for only: US $5.50 Buy it now | Add to watch list

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www.youtube.com Click here to watch last week’s episode of ETC! ETC: Exploding Directors and Faithful Fans (S02E20) Hello again to the description of ETC…and to ETC. Does anyone read this thing? If you are reading this write in the comments I don’t get the joke at 5:32. You see there is no 5:32, so…um…this week we talk about Micheal Bay, the Dark Crystal, Tim Burton, Mega Man, Uncharted, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Catch you next Thursday! – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machinima ‪twitter.com Inside Gaming ‪twitter.com Machinima Respawn ‪twitter.com Machinima Entertainment, Technology, Culture ‪twitter.com FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE SPORTS GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com TAGS: ETC etcetera Entertainment Technology Culture Khail Anonymous yt:quality=high michael Bay Transformers 3 pool jumpers catchers ball dogtown z-boys dark crystal jim henson tim burton monsterpocalypse uncharted 2 david o russell elisha cuthbert disney snow white cinderella lion king kimba white aristocats belle rollercoaster tycoon film adaptation megaman mega man no more heroes princess peach mario twitter facebook

US $1,199.99 End Date: Friday Feb-10-2012 7:22:30 PST Buy It Now for only: US $1,199.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list

My only experience with a fast-spinning CD threatening to cause damage was when I repeatedly pushed the eject button of a (CD-only, this was at least 7 years ago) optical drive that seemed unwilling to spit out my media. Then suddenly for some reason, the tray extended, and before I knew it, the CD—still spinning at top speed—actually flew upwards! I swear this anecdote is true!

Courtesy PowerLabs.org

In any case, a recent experiment theorizes that spinning a CD way faster than 56 times a second (or 56x, I assume) carries its own set of dangers. According to the experimenter, going above that speed magnifies the tiniest imperfection on a CD, potentially causing enough wobbling to damage the rotating mechanism. So of course he decided to test a CD with a Dremel, running it at over 35000 RPM. At those speeds, the edge of CD moves at nearly 800 kilometers per hour! (Or 792 kph, to be exact).

So what happened when a Dremel took a CD for a spin? Well, “the CD hummed and whined in a very menacing manner”. Scary, but it still took “quick jerk at the tool” to make the CD a projectile. Experimenting dude recounts what came next:

…the CD slid out of the holder and contacted the carpet whilst spinning at ungodly speeds. It peeled out a bit in front of me and proceeded to make its way to the door at a very high speed. On contacting the closed door, the CD did a most unexpected thing: it first bounced back a few inches, and then, when it hit the door again, it jumped straight up the door and struck the ceiling, exploding into thousands of fragments which rained down on the entire room. This first experiment was unfortunately not videoed, but it served to get everyone in the room to put glasses on and cower away behind pieces of furniture, whilst people in the hall corridor quickly made their way to my door to ask what was going on.

In other words, spin a CD-ROM really really quickly, launch into a hard surface, and you’ll get a pretty wicked disc that potentially creates deadly shrapnel. The experiment page (link below) contains multiple videos for download, if only to satisfy your visual curiosity and help you resist the temptation to try this at home.

PowerLabs High Speed CD-Rom Experiments

Post from: The Gadget Blog