It's not the size of the dog in the fight...

OK, here's a little engineering experiment for you, dear faithful Winter Term blog readers.

Supposing you had 12 wooden popsicle sticks and some hot glue. You could arrange them however you liked. How many kiligrams would your structure be able to support? Keep in mind that your little pile of materials weighs in at a measley .89 ounces. Mon dieu!

This little guy right here!

Okay, so your guess?

7kg?

15kg?

30kg?!

Get out!

Well, we went to the weight room... and piled on the plates.

And KEPT on piling on the plates! 

And there you have it... total collapse... at, you guessed it... 104.5 KILOGRAMS! That's 230 pounds! 

That's a really honkin' strength to weight ratio! So just remember when you're grousing about larger kids skiing faster in a ski race... it's not always the size of the dog in the fight... it's the size of the fight in the dog that matters!

Thanks Jordana and Randy for the awesome science project!