Does shaking iPad violently going to damage its orientation hardware? Yesterday I showed my grandparents an iPad mini for the first time, and because the orientation wasn't right, they shook it violently a few times hoping that it'd orient it correctly again. I may be a bit paranoid, but is that going to damage its orientation hardware? What does the iPad orientation hardware look like?
The iPad Mini's accelerometer is a solid-state (with a microscopic mechanical - thanks Graham Parks for the correction) device so shaking should not hurt it. Electric shocks (for e.g. immersing iPad in water while it's on) and heat do damage electronics.

You're more likely to break the adhesive that connects the gorilla glass to the aluminium back before hurting the accelerometer.