Recreation Physics

Alright for those of you who have taken physics...you will probably already know this...but I thought that it was quite cool. Any way...so you have a building...what is its foundation made of? Cement right? Take a piece of 8.5X11 piece of paper an crumple it into a ball....then put a book on top. (many other papers may be needeed depending on the book size) notice how the book doesnt touch the tabel? no matter how hard you push on it, it will not touch the table...this is becuase the paper is stronger than a flat piece of paper. So think of this question: When we have earthquakes, buildings fall becuase there foundation breaks. If paper shifts as it is moved, will it be a better foundation??

Misao

 

Actually, because of this principle, many smaller buildings in Japan have paper walls. That and it's less expensive to fix afterwards.

Many larger buildings currently do have newer foundations than concrete. They are the ones that seem to sway, because they really do. This is for earthquake protection.

Oh, and about the paper - the book never touches the table unless the center of mass is not directly over the center of mass of the paper itself. The reason for this is because the paper itself has mass, and thus cannot seem to be infinitely thin enough to let the book touch the table.
[/Phys 121]

 

However, in ancient Japan, when fire broke out it spread like... well... wildfire.

As well, buildings are designed to be 'flexible' in a sense. They can deal with more stresses, such as a very tall building (C.N Tower in Toronto, for example) swaying in the wind. It's designed this way to reduce the risk of collapse.