Recently, I came across an internet firearms forum discussing gun safe security. Several forum members, including former military veterans, conflated their military service with scientific expertise, stating emphatically that American two-story homes can only carry a max load of 400 pounds on the second floor.
The kicker was this -- if you put a gun safe on the second floor, and you place it in the middle of your home, your floor will start to bend from the pressure. Eventually, the pressure will be so great that the gun safe will fall to the ground floor, perhaps taking parts of the second floor with it.
Here's a gif I created for a visual illustration:
At first glance, the assertion sounds reasonable, except that it's not. Gun safes don't have all their weight focalized at one specific point. Rather, the weight is distributed across a fairly generous surface area.
Furthermore, if American homes could only carry a maximum of 400 pounds, how do fat people live upstairs? Should homes be required to carry a warning sign for fat people urging them to NEVER stand on one foot when going upstairs?
Here's another gif I created:
Folks, it goes without saying that any strongly-worded assertion from the internet should be taken with a huge grain of salt. While some assertions are smarter than others, think about the implications of what you hear on the internet before granting them intellectual validity!
Smart physics point. What those guys and gals probably mean is that if you could get 400 lbs of force onto the head of a pin, then that may pierce the total support capacity of the floor. As you noted, the more you distribute it, the lower the pounds/square inch of pressure is.
Fat people also have the benefit of a generous surface area. =)
If that was their point, then I wouldn't say anything. But they were very adamant about not putting any +400 lb safe upstairs, which I just thought was hilarious!
And yes, fat people have a very generous surface area, but like I mentioned, if two or more fat people stood on one foot, they would risk falling to the floor based on this internet forum's "science!" :)
Not to mention when two fat people get into one bed on the second floor?
Now if it was 4,000 that might be more believable.
Yup, and when two fat people have sex, most likely, they're occupying the same surface area as one person, but double the weight...so yeah...big problems! :)
Indeed :)
Cool
That is so funny @bullishmoney! I love your sense of humor !!:)) And about "scientific experts", hmm ...what I can say, there are lot of physics and astronomy experts who believe that the earth is flat, there are other experts who study green aliens or grey...whatever...What I am trying to say, it is nice to read such mythbusting articles...Upvoted !! Looking forward for more:))
I can't see the horizon! :)
Oh wow! That's a riot!
I thought so, but I guess not too many share my sense of humor! :)