Taping Someone To A Wall
It's Harder Than It Looks!
There have been a couple of inquiries about a previous post where I stated it took 2 1/2 rolls of duct tape to hold a 150 lb person to a wall. So, here's the scoop:
As you might have guessed, it was a college thing. I was a freshman at a small cow college in East Texas. As part of my failing-out-of-school curricula, we were conducting illicit physics exercises after the consumption of way too much beer.
Some of my pledge brothers lived in a dorm where concrete block walls were the main feature of the room. Everyone in that dorm hated the walls, 'cause you couldn't thumbtack your posters to the concrete. You could, however, hang things with really sticky tape, since the rough surface had a good grip to it.
I forget why we had so much duct tape on hand. I seem to recall it was around Homecoming, and we had been working on a float for a parade. Somehow the discussion got around to taping one of the "actives" to a wall. Pledging a fraternity was basically a semester-long war between the actives and the pledges. If they caught us alone, they'd stuff us in a car trunk and drop us off 20 miles from town, then call your pledge brothers to go get you. Of course, we could try the same game (called "taking you for a walk"), but they had the edge due to long practice.
We wanted to tape one of the worst-offending actives to the front of one of the female-only dorms, but didn't think it would hold all that well. So, a little testing was in order. What we discovered was that you needed twice as much tape as you thought you did, since any movement on the tapee tended to pull the tape loose faster than you could add another layer.
Trying to hold someone up while taping them is also not a good idea. Finally, we had the tapee stand on a cooler, and after we taped, we pulled it out from under him. He hung there pretty well, but as soon as he started jerking his body around, the bonds began to loosen, and he could eventually slide loose.
We never did get the active taped to the wall. We settled for pawning his 12-speed bike and mailing him the claim ticket and the cash to get it out of hock. Boy, he was one PO-ed dude those three days he had to walk to school and back! Ahh, the days before they insisted on proper ID's at the pawn shops...
AS for the question about the ratio of 60lbs of weight per roll of duct tape, I think it's all about the sectional density of the item being taped up, and the amount of motion it can generate. Ten one pound cans of coffee could probably be taped up with just a bit of tape. A 10 pound cat, though, would require a lot more to not only hang up, but immobilize.
Anyway, there's the tape story.
There have been a couple of inquiries about a previous post where I stated it took 2 1/2 rolls of duct tape to hold a 150 lb person to a wall. So, here's the scoop:
As you might have guessed, it was a college thing. I was a freshman at a small cow college in East Texas. As part of my failing-out-of-school curricula, we were conducting illicit physics exercises after the consumption of way too much beer.
Some of my pledge brothers lived in a dorm where concrete block walls were the main feature of the room. Everyone in that dorm hated the walls, 'cause you couldn't thumbtack your posters to the concrete. You could, however, hang things with really sticky tape, since the rough surface had a good grip to it.
I forget why we had so much duct tape on hand. I seem to recall it was around Homecoming, and we had been working on a float for a parade. Somehow the discussion got around to taping one of the "actives" to a wall. Pledging a fraternity was basically a semester-long war between the actives and the pledges. If they caught us alone, they'd stuff us in a car trunk and drop us off 20 miles from town, then call your pledge brothers to go get you. Of course, we could try the same game (called "taking you for a walk"), but they had the edge due to long practice.
We wanted to tape one of the worst-offending actives to the front of one of the female-only dorms, but didn't think it would hold all that well. So, a little testing was in order. What we discovered was that you needed twice as much tape as you thought you did, since any movement on the tapee tended to pull the tape loose faster than you could add another layer.
Trying to hold someone up while taping them is also not a good idea. Finally, we had the tapee stand on a cooler, and after we taped, we pulled it out from under him. He hung there pretty well, but as soon as he started jerking his body around, the bonds began to loosen, and he could eventually slide loose.
We never did get the active taped to the wall. We settled for pawning his 12-speed bike and mailing him the claim ticket and the cash to get it out of hock. Boy, he was one PO-ed dude those three days he had to walk to school and back! Ahh, the days before they insisted on proper ID's at the pawn shops...
AS for the question about the ratio of 60lbs of weight per roll of duct tape, I think it's all about the sectional density of the item being taped up, and the amount of motion it can generate. Ten one pound cans of coffee could probably be taped up with just a bit of tape. A 10 pound cat, though, would require a lot more to not only hang up, but immobilize.
Anyway, there's the tape story.
posted by El Capitan | 11:20 AM
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