A standard 2×2 LEGO brick can take 432 kgs of pressure before it cracks. The grand total of bricks a single Lego brick can support? 375,000. Multiply that by the height of the brick (9.6 mm) and it turns out that, theoretically, a tower of Lego 3.5 kms high could be built before the one at the bottom shows any problems. That’s taller than Mount Olympus in Greece!
A 2×4 brick would fail sooner, Ian Johnston reckons, while a 1×2 brick would likely be able to withstand more.
But could a 3.5km Lego tower really be built?
“There isn’t a chance you could do it in reality,” Johnston says. “Long before the brick fails, the tower would fail as a structure itself, by buckling. The other thing you have to remember is that we were very careful to load this equally down the middle, so that all four walls were loaded.”
A 3.5km tower would have to be built so straight that it was no more than 2mm off centre at the midway point, he says.
“And I’d be delighted to meet a Lego builder who could make a 3.5km tower so accurately.”
Cue Duncan Titmarsh, the UK’s only certified Lego builder – and one of only 13 worldwide – and Ed Diment, his partner at company Bright Bricks.
They built the 12.2m (40ft) Lego Christmas tree that stood in London’s St Pancras station last Christmas, and the 5m x 3m advent calendar standing in Covent Garden.
Picture Credit : Google
