Biologists use centrifuges to spin test tubes at extreme rpm to seperate out the contents of the tube. The rack which the centrifuge spins has to be very carefully balanced otherwise the centripidal force will be large enough to destroy the centrifuge. The story I have heard is that back in the day somebody took a centrifuge into a parking lot, unbalanced the rack, and had it spin as fast as possible to see what would happen. The force was great enough to throw the spindel through the body of the centrifuge and destory a nearby car. My parents (both biologists) claim they were shown pictures of the car as a warning when they were in graduate school, but I'm not convinced this is possible (they also claim newer centrifuges have safety features which make this impossible).

I have also been told about Centrifuge devastation. However destroying a car is minimal compared to what I heard. I've heard that the machines have barrelled through foundation walls in institution types of buildings, research labs, university academic buildings etc. Was shown pictures in my orientation at UVM of holes through walls...many walls in a row...like 6 or 7 made by a big centrifuge back in the late 60s or something like that. Any way to test the apparent destructive force of centrifuges?

Ben at Harvard Medical School