I fumble-fingered a plate, it fell between my tummy and the counter, and hit the floor edge-on. There’s a lot of energy stored in that stretched-glass ceramic layer! [Update: The glass is under compression.]
The fragments tend to be slivers rather than chunks, all with better-than-razor-sharp edges:
A bit more detail on Corelle in that post…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
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5 responses to “Corelle Fragments”
“The firing takes 20 hours, and the temperature is 1260 °C.”
http://www.arabia.fi/web/Arabiawww.nsf/en/about_arabia_production_and_materials
Hot stuff…
And that’s not even with the glass outer coating!
Of course, when a mug like that hits the floor, it leaves a nasty dent before shattering into a zillion pieces…
Reminds me of a Rupert’s drop….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert's_Drop
Video shows what happens pretty clearly. Pity it doesn’t show how you can whack the glass bulb with a hammer till you’re blue in the face without it shattering…. but snap a tiny bit off its thin tail and it will explosively disintegrate.
I’m surprised our plates haven’t detonated in the cupbord by now: they’re chipped around the edges from rattling in the dishwasher. Turns out the plastic coating on the rack wires developed little gaps where the plates bear down…