Teacher Lies on Bed of Nails for Science

A pair of science teachers teamed up to demonstrate the scientific principles at play when one lies on a bed of nails.

With a nod to the Halloween season, Upper School Science teachers George Austin and Xiao Zhang brought out a full-sized bed of nails for a hands-on demonstration of the relationship between force, pressure, area, inertia and acceleration.

Austin explained to the student observers the science behind the demonstration, in that the weight of one’s body is distributed across all of the nails, so the pressure exerted by any individual nail isn’t sufficient to break the skin. Zhang then lowered himself onto the bed of nails, and Austin layered another wooden board upon Zhang before topping that board with a cinderblock. With everything set, Austin carefully raised a sledgehammer and brought it down on the cinderblock—crumbling the concrete and leaving Zhang unharmed.

Enjoy a video of Austin’s explanation of the science behind the bed of nails and the in-class demo.

Click here for photos and a video.