I would assume the next photos in that sequence show one of the glass panels breaking, followed by a couple of tons of water blasting that child through a broken-glass-lined hole onto the pavement below.
3 Likes
I disagree a little. Water is â1â, this we know. There arenât too many liquids that are denser than water, especially in the range of temperatures and materials thatâs youâre likely to be doing large-scale back-of-the-envelope estimations. Like ⌠the weight of water in a swimming pool. I mean, you might want to estimate the weight of a swimming pool of mercury, but itâs frankly pretty unlikely, and if you are trying to figure out the weight of a large pool of mercury (or something even more esoteric like liquid sodium) I thoroughly recommend you use a calculator and some accurate figures for density and volume.
So, â1â is likely the upper end of the scale youâll be using, unless youâre dealing with seawater in which case itâs a bit heavier. Call it 1.1. (itâs actually 1.03, but eh. 1.1 is near enough, and easier to calculate in your head). Oils are lighter, so for large vats of olive oil or crude oil, call them 0.9. Or, for a really quick calculation call them 1 and then take off 10%.
etc.
SI is just flat out better.
3 Likes
Once upon a time many moons ago before the internet was, I went to a school in SW Ohio. Cincinnati. They had an awful modern tower dorm that they eventually imploded (video on the 'nets). I lived next door in a 4-5 floor old brick dorm called Dabny Hall. Old school. The bathrooms were like a gym and had a big open shower with like maybe 3-4 shower heads on two walls. You entered thru a chest high masonry and tile doorway on a diagonal to those walls.
Some wag thought of bringing a piece of plywood, wrapping it in plastic and then plugging the drain and blasting all the shower heads at max. When I walked in the place was full of people and a half dozen or so were swimming around in the 3-4â deep water. I thought, well, this doesnât look OSHA approved⌠but it held! I left as soon as possible in any event.
this guy is asking for troubleâŚbobtatoâs scenario was what I was going to post, so thanks for saving me the trouble mate!
2 Likes
From looking at the picture carefully:
-
Water level under window casement is not parallel with window.
-
Railing is bowing in the center.
-
Balcony is sagging slightly on the end toward the doorway.
-
Where the balcony joins with the structure, there appears to be a crack
(canât tell if itâs a photo artifact).
Conclusion:
This balcony is just about ready to blow.
âHey dad, come on in and join me! Cannonball!â
Slosh, slosh, CRA-ACK!
1 Like
I loved the sales pitch used by the waterbed companies: that a waterbed has the same square-foot weight loading on the floor as a refrigerator.
Because itâs common to park 9-12 refrigerators in a clump in a room.
7 Likes
Only way Iâll move back to an apartment.
In this case it wasnât as much help as I would have thought, though. Because designed floor limits are defined in terms of lb/ft² or N/m². So you have to convert from kilograms of water to Newtons of force that the water exerts in one gravity.
I once got a fortune cookie that stopped me cold; I, like many a boing boing bbs bullshitter, consider myself fairly cleverâŚ
The fortune said âcleverness is suitable for everything but sufficient for nothingâ. I was like wth?? I asked my buddy âwhatâs your fortune say?!â His was âa good friend is someone you have know [sic] for a long timeâ.
3 Likes
Two questions:
- Do those lines account for parallax distortion?
- To what is the red arrow and circle referring/calling attention?
1 Like
That balcony would hold forever, but you had to bring it to attention, thanks. Donât you know the Wile E. Coyote effect?
5 Likes
@M_Dub:
I did compensate for some parallax (of the bottom window, for example). If you measure the angles, all the blue lines are parallel and the water line deviates toward the right.
The photo was taken from an angle above and pointing downward, so the vanishing-point perspective is toward the bottom. It can be seen most obviously by comparing the corners of the upper and middle balcony facing the camera. The balcony stanchions are parallel but offset slightly, while the lip of the middle balcony is not parallel as with the balcony above it (and the lip doesnât have that much overhang to create a huge jump in parallax?).
The angles remain the same, the difference is that parallel lines are closer together toward the bottom of the picture. Itâs basically an isometric view.
The circled area shows a photo artifact or wall defect (compare to the top balcony). This may be because a joist or cantilevered concrete is starting to pull away from the wall and is cracking the masonry at the point of most stress.
(EDIT: Iâve complicated the photo a bit below ⌠click to enlarge)
3 Likes
Thatâs for the next airbnb renters to worry about!
5 Likes
metric people are just as dense as the rest of us 
5 Likes
This might help:
3 Likes
LOL (this is at least nine characters).
1 Like
inflate it with heliumâŚiâm confident that will work and is a real thing.
my bet would be on the railings giving way before the reinforced slab and that heâd be swept off the side of the balcony with the exiting water. @MikeKStar, @dan_smooth, and @bobtato beat me to that observation though.
i agree. i wonder what the outcome was? best case the corner of the balcony partly fails, the water drains at a reasonable pace and the kid gets back inside with everone realizing how stupid this was. iâll choose to think this unless we hear otherwise.
2 Likes
No need to google anything in metric. 1 cubic meter of water = 1 ton. Canât get much simpler than that. Also kinda easy to visualize how big of a volume 1 ton is.
1 Like
Doesnât NASA, the military, the standards bodies, etc all operate in metric?
2 Likes
Huh. I found plenty of statements about the stable max load in Germany, and they were all given as kg per Sqm. Granted, those were not the original documents but interviews with staticians, builders, etc, they all kinda agreed. Also, with being able to calculate the weight so easily, you get fast to the point of âholy crap, thatâs as heavy as may carâ within seconds.
Unless carsâ masses are given in yet another unit, I wouldnât be surprised.
Next trick up: calculate quickly how many sheets of legal paper you need to cover a cube consisting of an imperial ton of water.
3 Likes
