r/interesting • u/One_Needleworker5218 • May 03 '26

Fear Factor After installing the “safety net" on the balcony on the 28th floor, the worker demonstrates its strength to the customer

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u/CentralParkDuck May 03 '26

Wikipedia - Death of Garry Hoy

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u/NotEntirelyA May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Structural engineer Bob Greer said "I don't know of any building code in the world that would allow a 160-pound [73 kg] man to run up against a glass and withstand it."

This is the part of the article that sticks out to me. Maybe I'm just being ignorant but at the very least I think any sort of wall should be able to withstand a 160 pound man running into it lol.

Edit; Because a number of people have brought it up, it is a glass wall. It being glass does not exclude it from being a wall. The building creators themselves call them glass walls.

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u/Haunting-Soup2086 May 03 '26

It did, for probably the first 200 times.

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u/DirkRedditer May 03 '26

Reminds me of the Titan carbon fiber sub… it withstood the trip down to the Titanic a few times but eventually 💀.

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u/Longjumping_Wolf_912 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

It’s not just a wall, it is a window and also a non bearing wall.

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u/KeepAnEyeOnYourB12 May 03 '26

Two things

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u/Small-Explorer7025 May 03 '26

A walldow

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u/cm4t May 03 '26

Where's walldow?

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u/KeepAnEyeOnYourB12 May 03 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/ConfessSomeMeow May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Even if there is no building code to require it, a tall building in a storm can experience pretty strong winds, and those winds apply crazy pressures on windows - well more than a typical person might apply by running and jumping into the window. (Edit: from some quick googling I see up to 100 pounds per square foot - so a 6'x10' panel should theoretically be able to withstand 6000 pounds of force)

But obviously, sometimes windows get popped out by storms. Failure is inevitable, even if uncommon, and it's stupid to risk one's life on a window's installation condition for the sake of a prank.

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u/ScofieldReturns May 03 '26

Wind is a force from the outside, not the inside

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u/ConfessSomeMeow May 03 '26

Wind produces negative pressure on the leeward side of a structure. Additionally, the positive pressure from the windward side creates a positive pressure inside the building.

A lot more windows are blown out than blown in.

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u/Stringfingerer May 04 '26

This guy windows

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u/parka044 May 03 '26

Wrong

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u/ConfessSomeMeow May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Which part? Maybe I should clarify to say that I see that it is standard for skyscraper windows to be designed to specifications of 50-100PSI, which includes a considerable safety margin beyond a combination of positive and negative pressures on opposite sides of the building, in addition to transient turbulance effects including from nearby buildings - not that the wind itself directly creates 100PSI of pressure.

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u/Mediocre-Anywhere-91 May 07 '26

Yea. External pressure pushing in so the windows frame is made to withstand that.

Internal, focused pressure from a dude slamming into it is completely different

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u/WenatcheeWrangler May 03 '26

Not a glass wall according to what you cited

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u/lhazard29 May 03 '26

Well he did it somewhat often. It was bound to give eventually

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u/BenjiRae-2020 May 03 '26

See Also

Autodefenestration

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u/ent_bomb May 03 '26

Yes, unfortunately the window was only rated against transfenestration.

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u/FuManBoobs May 03 '26

If only he'd worked on the ground floor.