December
2
can the speed of a washing machine break the sound barrier?
Author: admin Category: 5
random question. i was just doing laundry, and my washer was spinning at a very high un-normal speed. i was wondering if the speed of a spin cycle could break the sound barrier if cycle was spinnig at a very high un-normal spped?
I suppose it could if the motor was powerful enough. I guess if you could get it to spin that fast there would be no need to dry them.
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December 3rd, 2009
yes
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science
December 3rd, 2009
I suppose it could if the motor was powerful enough. I guess if you could get it to spin that fast there would be no need to dry them.
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December 3rd, 2009
don’t think it can it wont spin fast enough
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December 3rd, 2009
no. No motor is capable to do that comercially
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December 3rd, 2009
Assuming the motor was powerful enough and the drum is strong enough, bear in mind that at that kind of speed a normal drum would likely rip apart. You would also need to be very skilled at loading your washing machine because if it is even slightly off balance the results could be catastrophic. However, I’m not sure if you can break the sound barrier that way. I suppose if the tangential velocity was great enough.
Fun idea though, super sonic spin cycle would certainly cut down on drying time.
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December 3rd, 2009
Yes easily!! just load it onto a supersonic jet, and take off.
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December 3rd, 2009
Sounds like a job for the Mythbusters!
No, seriously, it’s not possible for a commercial washer to spin that fast. Even the propellers on an airplane don’t spin faster than the speed of sound, but they come close.
Anyways, it would be amusing to see what they’d come up with to try and replicate this. They’d probably end up just building their own "washing machine" from scratch from a large steel barrel mounted on top of a huge motor.
And yeah, any slightest imbalance at those speeds would cause the whole thing to violently shake itself into pieces, sending shredded clothing spewing in every which direction.
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December 3rd, 2009
This is an interesting question worthy of some analysis.
The speed of sound in air at 68 degrees F is about 768 mph or around 1,125 feet per second. You’d have to get the outside of the drum going that fast to break the sound barrier. Assuming your drum is 2 feet in diameter, the circumference is about 6.28 feet (2 times pi). So, 1,125 feet per second divided by 6.28 feet per revolution (the distance the outside of the drum travels in one revolution) gives about 179 revolutions per second. Take this times 60 seconds per minute and you would need to spin your drum at 10,740 revolutions per minute to break the sound barrier.
Wikipedia tells me that spin cycles vary from 500 to 1600 rpm (or higher), so I really doubt it’s going to happen. Plus think about the thunking that would happen if you had an extra pair of jeans on one side of the drum. You might even alter the space-time continuum!
References :
Wikipedia for the speed of sound and washer drum speeds and math class for the rest.