On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:21:41 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm,
Ignoramus19259 quickly quoth:

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:15:49 -0500, Paul wrote:
Ignoramus19259 wrote:
My 6 year old son built this structure with three supporting columns
on the bottom. When time came to destroy it in a spectacular
fashion, I suggested pulling out the middle column so that it
would crash inward. he did just that, but it did not crash. I have
no idea how it may be still standing, but photos prove that it did
stand!

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/misc...n-Block-Tower/

There are absolutely no hidden gimmicks, chewing gum secretly holding
things together, etc. This post is NOT a joke.

i

Iggy

It would appear to, but the right hand stack bears on the lower
horizontal block and uses the tapered corner as a fulcrum 'prying up' on
it, at least that's my guess. You could probably never build that by
design!

That's the first thing I saw, too.


Paul, this seems to be the most plausible explanation, though I cannot
fathom how the pressure is so much as to neutralize the load on the
middle.

Evidently, the weight of the rounds exceeds that of the flats, so the
excess center weight is taken up by the two outside columns. Pretty
cool.

------
We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:01:30 -0700, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:21:41 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm,
Ignoramus19259 quickly quoth:

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:15:49 -0500, Paul wrote:
Ignoramus19259 wrote:
My 6 year old son built this structure with three supporting columns
on the bottom. When time came to destroy it in a spectacular
fashion, I suggested pulling out the middle column so that it
would crash inward. he did just that, but it did not crash. I have
no idea how it may be still standing, but photos prove that it did
stand!

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/misc...n-Block-Tower/

There are absolutely no hidden gimmicks, chewing gum secretly holding
things together, etc. This post is NOT a joke.

i

Iggy

It would appear to, but the right hand stack bears on the lower
horizontal block and uses the tapered corner as a fulcrum 'prying up' on
it, at least that's my guess. You could probably never build that by
design!

That's the first thing I saw, too.


Paul, this seems to be the most plausible explanation, though I cannot
fathom how the pressure is so much as to neutralize the load on the
middle.

Evidently, the weight of the rounds exceeds that of the flats, so the
excess center weight is taken up by the two outside columns. Pretty
cool.

Yes... I am not yet sure what exactly is the explanation, but,
obviously, laws of physics are not violated, it just looks that they
are.

i