it looks like such good fun,
Japan
is the world’s most earthquake-prone country, even though Japan takes up only
0.25% of the land area on our planet, 18.5% of earthquakes in the world occur
here, so it makes sense that buildings are made to be earthquake proof, and with that in mind a Japanese engineering university in Kumamoto is
famous for holding a unique competition, challenging students to build
toothpick towers that can resist a simulated earthquake, and it looks like fun when you watch the video below,
since 2006,
the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Sojo University has
been holding the “Toothpick
Tower Seismic Contest“, a unique competition that challenges teams of
students to build earthquake-resistant towers using only toothpicks and wood
glue, each team’s
tower is placed on a 30cm board and metal weights are gradually added on top of
it, while the platform they are placed on starts to shake, simulating an
earthquake. As the horizontal vibrations increase, the towers start toppling
under the pressure of the metallic weights. The last tower left standing is
declared the winner,
this video a a long one, a 2 mug of coffee if you watch all of it, the
toothpick tower competition was a hit from its very first edition, and since
2011, Sojo University has also hosted contests between teams of high-school
students, with the aim of raising the interest of high school students in the
manufacturing and design of earthquake-resistant buildings, to be
approved for the competition, the toothpick towers must be at least 50
centimeters tall and weigh less than 65 grams, they are glued to their
respective wooden boards as not to slide off when the platform starts to
vibrate, as it happens this could be a challenge for any school, even if it is not in a earthquake zone.
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