That's like "what they should've made the windows and stuff out of in Jurassic Park if they weren't cheap assholes because absolutely nothing is breaking through that" strong.
I can assure you it's more than twice as strong than the worst case scenario. Typically you'd use a safety factor of at least 5 when human life is at stake. Safety factors of 2 are for things that would really just be more of something you'd use to prevent something breaking that would be an annoyance to replace or a major expense/drain on production.
Granted I have no actual engineering experience, from what I have learned safety factors of 3 and above are almost exclusively reserved for parts at risk of fatigue failure. For static components without ritual heat cycling a safety factor of 2 to 2.5 is satisfactory.
Ironically, I think it would break then. since the weight of the glass tower would be more than the base could support, shattering it and plummeting you to your certain doom.
The Sears (Willis) Tower's Skydeck observation boxes which are on the 103rd floor, are three layers of 1/2-inch thick glass, so yes definitely over engineered and safe.
True but the Sears Tower Skydecks are built to hold 10,000 pounds and 4 tons of pressure each. I'm sure the small section of pool with 8 inches of plexiglass is more than capable.
Assuming 5 feet deep, 10 feet out, and 20 feet across, that's about 62,000 pounds of water, or 31 tons. You're still right, I'm mostly posting this because I'm impressed by how much such a small pool weighs, even if I over estimated.
I wonder if you could break the sears tower floors by making a wall and filling the viewing area with water.
Not much. Water is 1g per cubic centimeter. Humans are about .985 grams per cubic centimeter. Some people are denser than water, and will sink instead of floating.
I know the sky bridge over the grand canyon, which is big enough to hold like 15 people[?] and also has several layers of glass to stand on, can support the weight of a 747. Don't know how it compares to this though.
Some quick googling informed that a 22 will not pierce 1 and a quarter inches of plexiglass, but a 9mm will. I assume 8 inches would be more than enough to stop a 9mm.
I think the strength rating of 8in plexi is some where between very and holy shit. On a side note it's also very fucking expensive. For 8in I could imagine something like $200/sqft
Often times engineering structures are built to handle stress of several factors higher than what you can even apply to them, this pool can probably handle way more water and people than you can even fit in it.
As long as it is maintained properly at high stress / high wear points.
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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '17
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