How the Wrestling Ring Collapsed

Well, some of you may have watched WWE Vengeance and I was shocked to see the ring imploded. Yeah, I actually see stuff like that cause I monitor the media and study about their designs, story lines, plots etc.

Here's an interesting article from the WWE.Com Exclusive which explains the impact of that match.

A phenomenal lesson in ring physics

By: Joey Styles October 27, 2011

Tags: Vengeance 2011, Mark Henry, Big Show

At Vengeance, the gargantuan WorldHeavyweight Championship Match between The World’s Strongest Man, Mark Henry and The World’s Largest Athlete, Big Show ended in a shocking no contest when the ring collapsed as the result of the 412-pound champion superplexing the 485-pound challenger. (PHOTOS)

Exactly how much force does it take to collapse a WWE ring that has contained some of the most colossal collisions in the history of hand-to-hand combat? We don’t have a physics department here at WWE.com so we were forced to seek elsewhere for answers. Luckily, members of the WWE Universe come from all walks of life and we found a physics professor who is also a proud WWE fan.

Dr. Matthew Cathey of Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. was kind enough to take time from grading exams to provide WWE.com with these calculations:

Mark Henry and Big Show weigh a combined 897 pounds. Assuming their combined center of gravity fell six feet, their combined mass hit the mat at about 20 feet per second, or a bit over 13 miles per hour. That impact created a release of kinetic energy of 7253 Joules, which is equivalent to:

• Rey Mysterio (175 pounds) leaping onto his opponent from the top of steel cage hitting 30 feet, seven inches high, approximately twice as high as his SmackDown debut

• The detonation of approx. two grams of the explosive, trinitrotoluene (TNT).

• The energy at the muzzle of four rounds fired from an M16 rifle (WWE.com double-checked this fact with our friends at NationalGuard.com).

01:20

I think it took a little (bad) luck to break the ring. Different parts of the ring would handle that stress differently, as the shock waves created by the impact would be propagated differently. Notice how the opposite ring post is the first to collapse; that’s exactly the opposite of what you would expect.  It was also not instantaneous. It took a split second to collapse. That’s the really fascinating aspect thing about of this incident.  Again, this is speculation, but I think the energy imparted into the ring by the impact bounced around for a second, seeking a way to get dissipated (it usually does this mainly by oscillations in the ring surface doing work by lifting the Superstars and Divas an inch or two; you can see them bounce after a big impact), but the energy was too much for the corner that collapsed.

This was my first thought:Bad luck similar to this caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to collapse in 1940.  The wind that took it down was well within specifications that bridge was built to withstand but the angle and speed of the wind created a resonance that caused the energy which was trying to dissipate to actually reinforce itself and destroy the structure.
It’s the same phenomenon that causes a crystal glass to shatter when a soprano hits exactly the right note.

After entering Professor Cathey’s studious scientific explanation into my personal proprietary intellectual to extreme language translator, I offer this reaction to the structural subsidence: “OH MY GOD!”

The flooded Bangkok. The amazing facts about Bangkok, Thailand

The floods in Bangkok has become really serious and info from my counterparts there have alerted me that it's worse than we think. Even with the photos, I can tell it's like venice (more or less).


The better part about this is, Bangkok isn't exactly what it's name is. Or, I should say, some parts of Thailand never even heard of it.

Unless talking to foreigners who don't know any different, Thais will never call their capital city Bangkok - indeed, some Thais in the more remote provinces may never have even heard of it being called that. Instead in Thai it is known as Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ), which roughly translates to 'City of Angels'.

Bangkok (translating as 'village of wild plums') was the original site for the capital city and was located west of the Chao Phraya river (in modern day Thonburi). In 1782, King Rama I decided to move to a more defensible site and moved across the river to found his new capital, Krung Thep. For whatever reason, foreigners have never since caught up with the name change and the old name of Bangkok has stuck. In recent years, Krung Thep/Bangkok has expanded at such a fast rate that it now sprawls over a huge mass of land on both the sides of the Chao Phraya and has engulfed the once independent Thonburi.

Krung Thep is actually an abbreviated version of the ceremonial full name, which is shown below.

กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

In the official English romanisation, this is certified as the longest place name in the world in the Guinness book of records. It's pronounced something like:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

So given the length of it, it's not hard to see why it's shortened in every day use. The full name itself is never actually used, though it can be seen on a few signs around Bangkok as part of a tourist campaign. Another version, Krung Thep Mahanakhon, is quite common in official documents, car number plates and the like. Despite the length of it, an impressive number of Thai people are still able to recite the entire name off by heart. They wouldn't necessarily understand what it means though, as many of the words are archaic and no longer used in modern Thai. The full name actually translates to a string of superlatives, which give some idea of how fond King Rama I must have been of his new city:

The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.

Times have changed & so does our style of culture

Everyone has been busy lately, I guess. I've got all sorts of calls and people running around telling me "yeah, busy." or "Year end... busy, busy, busy". Ok, I'll just join into the trend and say, "don't know, I'm busy, I think?"

Most of the time, we get people telling us that they're on the way. It's a normal practice in Malaysia. Guess what's the best part of this culture?

Surprised? Guessed not. Some people will get pissed off from waiting for too long and they'd probably head to a different dimension and try something quirky.

This guy(s) went to the extend to inform the fast-food outlet:

So, the unthinkable happened.

Wonder if anyone would do such a thing here?

Then again, Malaysian fast food outlets make you pay before you even bite. So, die-die also need to wait till the cows come home.

Oh wait, just in case you need to go to the washroom, remember to bring some coins along. This toilet is unique. Here's why:

If you're pissed off by that, you can always try the Grand Slam of Thor.

And finally, if you can't sleep and try to be awake while reading this, maybe this will help: