While getting captured up on my reading in Feedly today I came throughout a.
brand-new comic from The Oatmeal. The comic addresses the question, “how high can a LEGO tower get?” (Its a copyright-protected work so youll need to view it on The Oatmeal site). The comic is based on a 2012 BBC short article entitled.
How Tall Can a LEGO Tower Get? The comic and the post triggered me to turn to YouTube for videos about constructing giant LEGO towers. YouTube did not disappoint me in my look for videos that explain the math and physics highlighted in the BBCs short article and The Oatmeals comic..

Last fall a YouTube channel titled Lifes Biggest Questions tackled the question of “how tall can a LEGO tower get?” The video explains the math that was used by scientists at The Open University to figure how tall a LEGO tower would get before the blocks collapsed under their own weight. Naturally, the mathematical response presumes that the tower would not fall over before reaching its maximum height. You then have to think about the general stability of the structure instead of just weight-bearing ability of the structure. See the video for more information, its quite pleasurable..

Applications for Education.
The concern of “how high can a LEGO tower get?” is an enjoyable prompt for diving into conversations about math and physics. Before showing students the short article or the video discussed above, I d have them make guesses as to the response then compose out lists of the variables that they can consider that would influence how high the tower could get. Then after they enjoy the video I d have a little classroom contest to see who can construct the highest tower with the LEGOs available in my class.

The comic and the post triggered me to turn to YouTube for videos about developing huge LEGO towers. The video explains the math that was used by researchers at The Open University to figure how tall a LEGO tower would get prior to the blocks collapsed under their own weight. Before showing students the post or the video mentioned above, I d have them make guesses as to the answer then write out lists of the variables that they can believe of that would affect how high the tower could get. After they see the video I d have a little classroom contest to see who can construct the highest tower with the LEGOs available in my class.

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been used without approval if you see it somewhere else. Websites that steal my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Included image recorded by Richard Byrne.