Talk:CD shattering

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MythBusters explored this a while ago and found that normal CDs will not shatter in a conventional CD drive (the spin speed isn't high enough). However, the stresses on a spinning CD are considerable, and a defective CD (a small crack, a weak spot, manufacturing error...) could shatter under normal operation. — QuantumEleven 19:55, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

It only takes a very small amount of flutter in a 40x CD-ROM drive to create a whole lot of friction, and it's pretty easy for that to happen if your CDs are poorly balanced (you can actually slightly unbalance CDs by writing with some types of ink on only one side of the CD) or if the CD-ROM motor is starting to get old. Once the fluttering starts (you can usually hear it, though CD-ROM drives often flutter with no concequence) a CD can explode with even the slightest bump, or like Quantum said, a small crack or weak spot. These things used to be very common back when people were trying to manufacture rediculously fast CD-ROM drives, though it seems that everybody has settled for about 40x nowadays.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:35, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

With all due respect to MythBusters, cd's can shatter. It happened to me yesterday, hence my searching the internet for other occurrences. And it was a commercially recorded cd game, not a no-label mystery cd. The cd shattered, blowing off the door of the CD and spraying the room with fragments.