Declaration of World Record Set

World Record Set on February 25th 2012 by Corporal Willy aka Richard Williams

To all the Members of ENGINEERING.com and the world at large, I do solemnly swear and affirm that on 02/25/2012 while in the University Testing Lab at UNLV, Las Vegas, Nevada, a new world record was set. This world record was set during an event staged there for the Engineers Week where we introduced a number of young children to this technical career. One of the tasks put out for the children to see and witness was to take part in the testing of various cardboard structures I made using this material you would normally throw out or recycle and Elmer’s Wood Glue.

Down below are two pictures of all the cardboard structures that I created for destructive testing to be done on this day.

It is important to state here and now that the only World Record Test Results that I am declaring are those that were done on the very sophisticated university test lab equipment. The technical documentation, as well as witnesses and forensic picture archives are presented to this distinguished membership and readership for you to look at. I did go to the Guinness Book of World Records and did searches for this time of category. Finding none on this subject I submitted my information and declaration. I also refused to hand over my credit card information for them to do all of their searches into this claim. Realizing that I did not save the world here from disaster and being retired, I saw no reason to go any further with that route. Therefore, I decided to Declare my World Record that begs to be beaten by the youngsters in schools all over the world. Inspiring and motivating students, schools and teachers into doing these hands on projects are what keep me going.

This is my Declaration Down Below:

This day I am declaring myself as to holding a world record for the strongest and lightest cardboard construction to the world. I also made a challenge for the schools and students everywhere to beat that record. My strongest stool weighed 9.25 ounces (264 grams) but held up a static loading force of 1,113 lbs or 504.84 kilograms, which is a weight to strength ratio of 1,925.1891 to 1. That is the record I want students and schools to beat. There were many witnesses to this test and I do have documented evidence. After doing a search for anything on that topic on the Guinness Book of World Records, I found no such record or category in this realm. There were categories for other uses of cardboard, but not for the strength of cardboard structures weighing in at such very small values or ratios of weight to strength. So finding no such equal search subject in that category, I made the claim and clicked on the submit button. This claimed world record was not done to put me in the spotlight. It was done to challenge and stimulate interest in school competitions worldwide using these cheap materials, which are mostly free as far as the cardboard is concerned. When you challenge students, they can do great things. I am also making this claim on the Engineer.com web site, which has many members that are teachers and students and I will do the same on the SolidWorks.com Teachers Web Site. With a little practice many very nice structures can be created with this material and rather than burning it or burying it in dump sites, I would like to see it used a lot more with hands on projects in our schools all over the world. I have attached the digitized record of the test using the UNLV’s Testing Lab Equipment. There equipment breaks it down into seconds and displacement values as well of the tested object where the force is recorded at that same time. I know how much Engineers love recorded data, so I offer it to those reading this email. You can scroll down through the text file to see exactly when and how much force was exerted until it broke. I think it is still amazing to have it recorded like this on real test equipment. Along with the text file of the test, I have included the forensic picture files for you to look at. It took about four days to make each one of the stools and it had to be done in stages. I want to take the time to thank the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and to all the college engineering students that volunteered to make the day successful. Two ¾ inch plywood pieces the size of the stool top were placed upon the top of the test subject to create a more uniform pressure all over the stool’s top surface. Their weight was not even added into this force exerted on the top surface but their combined weight was 2.778125 lbs additional. However, I will not claim that in this World Record Declaration.

I am sorry for the text file being such a long column to view. I will make the full test file available to anyone that would like to see it, but it is very long. I cut out anything past the time of the highest recorded value and only added a couple of other lines of data to show the place where the Stool-Test # 44 failed.

Model P3 Strain Indicator and Recorder

For your amusement I offer you the Forensic Pictures of the Stool.

Bye for now and there will be articles written about this event day at UNLV, Las Vegas.

Sincerely,

Richard Williams aka Corporal Willy
cplrich@cox.net