It looks like they’re actually tier 1 (they seem to be standing on a white platform), but what, if any, weight is each layer above them? I can see narrow platforms, but are they all taking most of the weight?
I’m not sure whether this was meant as an athletic or purely aesthetic display – since they’re billed as ‘acrobats’, I assumed skill was involved, so what would be the best and worst case scenario those 8-10 in the narrowest tier would be supporting?
e: was there any kind of structural support in this? I’m not finding much about it.
Here’s a Snopes article about this event at the 1980s Olympics in Moscow.
None beyond their own bodyweight.
The photograph shows an impressive feat in which dozens of acrobats stood on top of each other (relying on mounted platforms) to create a human tower in the likeness of the torch.
Emphasis mine. Most of the weight is born by platforms that the humans are obscuring the view of. Look at the postures of each tier; none are braced for any significant weight.
You can see the structure pretty clearly toward the top. E.g. the guys holding onto the metal bar.
Also this is pretty clearly a metal pole when you zoom in
If you watch closely how most of them are standing and holding the platform above them I doubt they are holding any weight. Most of them have hands crossed, elbows unlocked, or bear the wiight woth neck (heads down) so they are holding nothing. Also some levels are clearly not holding anything from the floor above. So since It can’t stand floating, some kind of platform is involved.
My conclusion is they are just standing in an aseathic way over a platform and not carrying any wight.
Just to make the top layer of women possible, the top layer of men would have to carry the weight of at least 2 women each + the platform weight for who knows how long.
I assume a center beam supporting the platforms runs through all the platforms, obscured by the people.
Yeah ofcourse, i was just trying to showcase how absurd even one layer of this would be without a pillar.
As said by many, there’s a hidden structure that supports everyone here. So every athlete is only supporting themselves.
If you want to see people supporting each other in a tower structure search for Catalonian Castells.
Yep these are insane, and really dangerous.
Oh wow that’s indeed way less than I would’ve thought. Still dangerous IMO but clearly the people doing it are very good at it.
people really just say shit with confidence like it’s a fact and don’t even google it first
I mean 5 people died, and if you go read their first link you’ll see injuries are common and on the rise (it’s the whole premise of the article). Theyare dangerous, the fact they’re really good at it and aren’t constantly dying doesn’t change that? It’s like saying corrida isn’t dangerous because they don’t get gored by the bull every time.
I was just poking fun, I agree with you that they are dangerous lol
Yeah, if you zoom in, you can see metal posts between the legs of the athletes at that level. I can’t discern any other structure at other levels, but at least the guys on the outwards-facing level can’t be bearing much weight on their rear-stretched arms, even if they’re doing it entirely through tension. The women at the bottom are mostly hiding the platform level 2.5 is at.
It’s a nice display, regardless! I also like the subtle, probably unintended metaphor of all of those people at the heights - mostly layers of men - standing on a supporting base of women. The other metaphor is that the masses are being held up by a few strong men, which is dumb. And I honestly believe this is a purely aesthetic display, and that the metaphors I’m seeing are entirely of my own construction.
Others have covered that there were internal supports, so they were supporting nothing at all. But let’s assume they weren’t.
I’m going for an intentional underestimate - so let’s say there are 10 people in your layer (I think 8 is more likely), then 24 above them, 18 above them, 18 above them, 25 above them, 14 above them, and 2 above them. I think most people would agree those are underestimates for each ring.
That’s 101 people being supported by 10 people. If we take another underestimate that each of those people weighs 100 pounds (45.36 kg) then that’s 10,100 pounds (4581.28 kg) - or 1010 pounds (458.13 kg) supported by each of the 10 people in your ring, completely ignoring the weight of the metal rings visible in the picture. So I think it’s safe to say it was mostly the internal supports at work.
You are now a mod of /c/TheyDidTheMath
If you do a rough estimation in one unit, you don’t have to do 4 significant figures for the converted units. Just round it to 50kg or whatever, and do your calculations (101*50) in the converted units instead of converting again, so the numbers line up nicely in either unit.
Idk but that looks like it would be an awkward time to get an erection.
It doesn’t look like they’re carrying any weight. If you look at this video of the opening ceremonies, right at the beginning you can see the athletes in the torch not actually touching the level above them.
Longer versions of the ceremony seem to show moments where the acrobats on lower levels both have their hands out into the air, or are even hanging from the level above them - suggesting any given level is capable of supporting both the weight of those below and above it.
I don’t know why but I find the video extremely unsettling. At first I was like, oh neat, human dominoes! But then the formations started looking more and more like sea creatures, but made of people… I don’t know. I like sea creatures just fine. I do not like this.
YOU MUST JOIN WITH THE FLESH
WE ARE WE ARE WE ARE…
…get out of here, Sarkic scum! The Machine endures forever!
Part of the ship, part of the crew.
Part of the ship, part of the crew.
Part of the ship, part of the crew.
Oh, about seven and a half.
since they’re billed as ‘acrobats’, I assumed skill was involved
How do you think they got up there?
Was gonna say, you gotta be fit as hell to even get a place in something like that.
About one and a half football fields.
MFW I trained for years to be the best athlete I can be
MFW my role is to just sit on the ground
They have the very important role of cushion if the tower collapses.
There is absolutely a structure supporting the weight of the acrobats at each level. You can clearly see two platforms. And how else are those folks leaning outward supposed to be supported if not for a central structure. They’d just fall out if they weren’t reaching back holding onto a central structure.
It looks like a rotor made of human flesh.
I’ll be in my bunk.
I dunno, but the devil on my shoulder wants to see one of them stumble and collapse the whole weird thing, just to see what happens.
Nobody answered the question assuming they were somehow holding each other up. I think just take the weight of the average person and multiply it by how many people are above the level you’re considering and then divide by the number of people.
!lemmySilver
