question: If the the tail of a Prince Rupert's drop is the main weak point on the drop, how would a tailless Prince Rupert's drop work?
comment: What you're talking about is [tempered glass]( URL_0 ). A sphere of it would be even more resilient than a Prince Rupert's Drop, but by no means indestructible. The Drops are notable because they have an obvious weak point, so they are useful for demonstrating what's neat about tempered glass - it's much stronger than normal glass, but is less easily worked after cooling because when it does fail it does so spectacularly.
passages: In 1994, Srinivasan Chandrasekar, an engineering professor at Purdue University, and Munawar Chaudhri, head of the materials group at the University of Cambridge, used high-speed framing photography to observe the drop-shattering process and concluded that while the surface of the drops experiences highly compressive stresses, the inside experiences high tension forces, creating a state of unequal equilibrium which can easily be disturbed by breaking the tail. However, this left the question of how the stresses are distributed throughout a Prince Rupert's drop.
   The explosive disintegration arises due to multiple crack bifurcation events when the tail is cut – a single crack is accelerated in the tensile residual stress field in the center of the tail and bifurcates after it reaches a critical velocity of . Given these high speeds, the disintegration process due to crack bifurcation can only be inferred by looking into the tail and employing high speed imaging techniques. This is perhaps why this curious property of the drops remained unexplained for centuries.
   To research the control and stability of tailless aircraft. The National Research Council of Canada initiated a research programme using a specially designed glider, the NRC tailless glider. During the inter-war years Geoffrey T. R. Hill had designed and Westland Aircraft Limited had built a series of tailless aircraft with support from the Royal Aircraft Establishment. During World War II Geoffrey Hill served as the British Scientific Liaison Officer at the National Research Council (NRC) in Canada, where he proposed the development of a tailless research glider similar to his Pterodactyl designs.
  
  Section::::Design.
   The second unusual property of the drops, namely the strength of the heads, is a direct consequence of large compressive residual stresses—up to —that exist in the vicinity of the head's outer surface. This stress distribution is measured by using glass's natural property of stress-induced birefringence and by employing techniques of 3D photoelasticity. The high fracture toughness due to residual compressive stresses makes Prince Rupert's drops one of the earliest examples of toughened glass.
  
  Section::::History.
   The technical term for this ability to drop the tail is "caudal autotomy". In most lizards that sacrifice the tail in this manner, breakage occurs only when the tail is grasped with sufficient force, but some animals, such as some species of geckos, can perform true autotomy, throwing off the tail when sufficiently stressed, such as when attacked by ants.
   Similar to the D.H. 108, the twin-jet powered 1948-vintage Northrop X-4 was one of the series of postwar X-planes experimental aircraft developed in the United States after World War II to fly in research programs exploring the challenges of high-speed transonic flight and beyond. It had aerodynamic problems similar to those of the D.H.108, but both X-4 examples built survived their flight test programs without serious incidents through some 80 total research flights from 1950-1953, only reaching top speeds of 640 mph (1,035 km/h).
  
  BULLET::::- Dassault "Mirage"
   A scholarly account of the early history of Prince Rupert's drops is given in the "Notes and Records" of the Royal Society of London. Most of the early scientific study of the drops was performed at the Royal Society.
   In his book "Crossing the Chasm", Geoffrey Moore proposes a variation of the original lifecycle. He suggests that for discontinuous innovations, which may result in a Foster disruption based on s-curve, there is a gap or chasm between the first two adopter groups (innovators/early adopters), and the vertical markets.
  
  Disruption as it is used today are of the Clayton M. Christensen variety. These disruptions are not s-curve based. 
   BULLET::::- New World monkeys. The capuchin monkey. The capuchin is more than intelligent enough to make full use of its prehensile tail, but since the tail lacks an area of bare skin for a good grip it is only used in climbing and dangling. Other reasons for partial prehensility might include the lack of strength or flexibility in the tail, or simply having no need to manipulate objects with it.
  
  BULLET::::- Tree porcupines. The 15 species of tree porcupine (genus "Coendou"). They are found in South America, with one species extending to Mexico. All have prehensile tails.
   BULLET::::- Northrop
  
  In parallel with Lippisch, in the USA, Jack Northrop was developing his own ideas on tailless designs. The N-1M flew in 1941 and a succession of tailless types followed, some of them true flying wings.
  
  Section::::History.:Postwar.
  
  BULLET::::- de Havilland DH 108 "Swallow"
   Not only is this bigger at the center than it is at the tails, but as one moves toward the center from either tail, the slope first increases and then decreases, just as with the bell-shaped curve.
  
  The degree of its resemblance to the bell-shaped curve can be quantified as follows. Consider
   BULLET::::- Possums. This large, diverse group of 63 species forms the marsupial suborder Phalangeriformes, found in Australia, New Guinea, and some nearby islands. All members of the suborder have prehensile tails; however, the tails of some members such as the Acrobatidae have only limited prehensile capacity. Notably, all three marsupial glider groups belong to this suborder.
  
  BULLET::::- Potoroidae. A marsupial group found in Australia that includes the bettongs and the potoroos. They have weakly prehensile tails.
  
  BULLET::::- Monito del monte. A small South American marsupial with a prehensile tail.
  
  Section::::Animals with partially prehensile tails.:Reptiles.
   Section::::Scientific uses.
  
  The process for the production of toughened glass by quenching was probably inspired by the study of the drops, as it was patented in England by Parisian Francois Barthelemy Alfred Royer de la Bastie, in 1874, just one year after V. De Luynes had published accounts of his experiments with them.
   The Dutch scientist Constantijn Huygens asked Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle to investigate the properties of the drops; her opinion after carrying out experiments was that a small amount of volatile liquid was trapped inside.
   Alfred Jarry's novel "Supermale" makes reference to the drops in an analogy for the molten glass drops falling from a failed device meant to pass eleven thousand volts of electricity through the supermale's body.
  
  E. R. Eddison's novel Mistress of Mistresses 1935 references Rupert's drops in the last chapter as Fiorinda sets off a whole set of them.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Thermal stress
  
  Section::::Further reading.
  
  BULLET::::- Sir Robert Moray (1661). "An Account of the Glass Drops", "Royal Society" (transcribed, archive reference).
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- PrinceRupertsDrop.com High-speed slow motion video demonstrations.
   Many Bolliger & Mabillard coasters feature an element known as a "pre-drop", a short drop after the top of the lift hill and before the start of the first drop, designed to reduce stress on the lift chain. The flat section between the pre-drop and the first drop serves as a shelf to support the weight of the train, reducing related stresses on the chain. On most coasters without a pre-drop, the weight of the train tends to pull on the lift chain as it begins its descent because the latter half of the train is still being lifted by the chain. Pre-drops have not been used on the company's Dive or Flying coasters, or on hyper coasters built after 1999. "OzIris" at Parc Astérix was the first B&M inverted roller coaster that does not feature a pre-drop. Ever since, no coaster built by B&M has featured a pre-drop because the chain accelerates on newer coasters of B&M after the train passes the crest to acquire the same speed as the train when it is being taken over by gravity.
   Although severability in the context of constitutional law may often require special treatment, in the present case the trite test can properly be applied: if the good is not dependent on the bad and can be separated from it, one gives effect to the good that remains after the separation if it still gives effect to the main objective of the statute. The test has two parts: first, is it possible to sever the invalid provisions and, second, if so, is what remains giving effect to the purpose of the legislative scheme?
   Section::::The stories.:Tonsil Eye 'Tis.
  
  A boy who is obsessed with garden gnomes gets a gnome with a face in its mouth. After getting the face out of the gnome's mouth, the boy ends up getting the face in his own mouth, as well as an eye growing on his finger.
  
  Section::::The stories.:Unhappily Ever After.
  
  A principal who enjoys giving the strap to troublemakers, as well as people who insult him, goes for a boat ride, but when he gets trapped in a current, he is forced to watch images of people doing to others what those others do to them.
   Section::::Research with crayfish.:Modulation and plasticity of the response.
  
  The production of a tail flip is not always beneficial. Evolution has allowed the crayfish to be more flexible by presenting several control systems that will prevent the tail flip in situations where it will most likely be unnecessary or ineffective.
  
  Section::::Research with crayfish.:Modulation and plasticity of the response.:Eating.
   BULLET::::- Rats have been known to be able to wrap the tail around an object after running around it, therefore giving the creature a small bit of balance. They have also been seen to be able to briefly hang off an object, though not for long.
   Greg's school has a Balloon Brigade. If a student's balloon travels far and is brought back to its owner, the student wins a giant jar of candy corn. Greg writes an overly dramatic letter to ensure that his balloon is returned and attaches it to his balloon. While the other balloons get stuck on a cell phone tower, Greg's balloon is weighed down by his letter and flies further. Greg then discusses the Cheese Touch from the first book and how the kids try to bring it back, but the teachers always catch them doing so.
   Section::::Speculative Purpose.
   Prince Rupert's drops (also known as Dutch or Batavian tears) are toughened glass beads created by dripping molten glass into cold water, which causes it to solidify into a tadpole-shaped droplet with a long, thin tail. These droplets are characterized internally by very high residual stresses, which give rise to counter-intuitive properties, such as the ability to withstand a blow from a hammer or a bullet on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail end is even slightly damaged. In nature, similar structures are produced under certain conditions in volcanic lava and are known as Pele's tears.
   The bell-shaped lift distribution this produces has also been shown to minimise the induced drag for a given weight (compared to the elliptical distribution, which minimises it for a given span).
  
  Section::::History.
  
  Section::::History.:J. W. Dunne.
   However, noninterleaved planners typically separate the goal (stack A atop B atop C) into subgoals, such as:
  
  BULLET::::1. get A atop B
  
  BULLET::::2. get B atop C
  
  Suppose the planner starts by pursuing Goal 1. The straightforward solution is to move C out of the way, then move A atop B. But while this sequence accomplishes Goal 1, the agent cannot now pursue Goal 2 without undoing Goal 1, since both A and B must be moved atop C:
  