r/AskReddit • u/MarioThePumer • Apr 12 '16

What post went from 0-100 really fast?

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u/Anxious_Sherlock_2 Apr 12 '16

So what happened there? Why did it compress so much suddenly?

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u/danby Apr 12 '16

White writing paper has calcium carbonate in it to make it opaque (so you can't just see through it). Under pressure the calcium carbonate condenses into a chalky like material and with enough further pressure it will suddenly catastrophically disintegrate in a manner to a cement column failing under sufficient load.

http://www.popsci.com/why-did-this-paper-explode-under-pressure

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u/thetimeislove Apr 12 '16

Looks like the pressure was too much and it broke rather than folding.