Build a seat of nails

Have you ever sat on a seat of nails? Adult supervision is recommended.

Materials

* Board

* 50 nails

* Hammer

* Chair

Instructions

STEP 1: Using the hammer, drive 50 nails evenly through the board approximately 1/4th of an inch from each other.

STEP 2: Place the seat of nails on a chair. Carefully sit on the seat of nails, distributing your weight onto each nail evenly.

Explanation

When a person carefully sits on the seat of nails, evenly distributing their weight, each nail is only experiencing a small amount of their weight. That means the person sitting down on the seat of nails experiences no pain.

Jason Lindsey is a science outreach educator with Hooked on Science. Check out his website www.hookedonscience.org for webcasts and experiments.