Sometimes, when you least expect it, something happens that shatters your life so hard that the resulting wave could destroy this 6-Story condo. This time, you can expect it to happen tomorrow, Juluuii 14tgdsgas wwwehatt thgee fuchthtoh isgg ghoonngg oooonnn
See? See what I did there? Aw, never mind.
Tomorrow you can tune in live to see how this building gets destroyed—or not—by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. The 23-unit wooden condo will be tested on the largest shake table in the world, located in Miki, Japan. The massive hydraulic engines will reproduce the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake amplified 1.5 times.
This experiment—which will happen on July 14, 11am EDT—is designed to check the effectiveness of wood structures against earthquakes. However, they have already tested the building on the same table using a much lighter simulation:
According to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s civil engineer Michael Symans, it’s surprising that the building resisted the first two tests so well. He adds, however, that they “really don’t know what will happen” in this new experiment. Oh, you teaser. I don’t have a clue either, Mr. Symans, but I am hoping for a lot of fun and lots of shakity shakity shaking. [Webcast via Wired]
