Yopaz said:
CRT TVs wont break from a frontal assault, the glass is way too thick to be broken by a fall like that, there's also vacuum inside so it's built to last. If they had attacked it from behind it would knock off the protection from the back and cause an implosion. My physics teacher in high school taught me that, a wisdom he gained when he was trying to help a friend move his TV.
TV imploded by one drop to the floor because the back of it hit the table the TV was on.
Hold on there.
Having a vacuum inside something does not make it stronger to outside attacks...in fact it makes it far weaker. There is no pressure inside a vacuum tube to counter the atmospheric pressure outside. So you have the constant atmospheric pressure, plus the impact of whatever attack you throw at it to break something "holding" a vacuum. Vacuum anythings are built to last because if they weren't, they'd implode at the slightest suggestion.
The glass does not break because of a combination of thickness (CRT glass _is_ quite thick), but moreso(especially considering the vacuum inside) because it has a convex surface. A dome struck at its apex will spread the force equally across its entire structure. The TV's glass is not a perfect dome but it's sufficient to spread the impact.
Here is a link with a picture of the guts of a CRT tv. As you can see, it's obvious that hitting it anywhere in the back, and not the curved front, would result in breaking something as there is no structural soundness anywhere. Hitting it in the back would probably not cause a catastrophic implosion involving the glass, though (as the glass would still be fully intact and its dome structure still gives it considerable strength). I'm fairly certain that your physics instructor's implosion resulted in the tv striking a _corner_ of the glass front as it hit the ground, resulting in weakening the glass overall and allowing the vacuum to implode everything. Striking a CRT monitor or TV's corner _will_ make the thing implode pretty spectacularly.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question678.htm