When asked by OU/BBC Radio Four programme More or Less: “How many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, it would take to destroy the bottom brick?”, Staff Tutor Ian Johnston (pictured) and his team set about finding the answer.
By measuring the pressure that it takes to destroy one 2x2 Lego brick, and then figuring out how many bricks stacked on top of each other it would take to exert the same force, they calculated that it would take 375,000 bricks or a tower 3.5km high to flatten the bottom brick.
However, the tower is unlikely to be built. "Long before the brick fails, the tower would fail as a structure itself, by buckling," says Dr Johnston.
(9 votes)
Comments
I suppose the answer also depends on where the tower is built, for example on the Moon there is less gravity but also no buoyancy from atmosphere.
I would say that you can make it as tall as you want as long as it's a pyramid and the base is wide enough to sustain the distribution of the weight on it. Or am I wrong in believing that?
As far as I can tell you are absolutely right Christos.
But this is on the blog for maths and not engineering :)