So the time has come to answer the most deliberated and researched upon question of our times, Why does stepping on a Lego brick hurt so bad?
Okay it might not be as important as getting rid of terrorism or curing cancer, but ask someone who has borne the unadulterated pain and misery when one accidentally steps upon a lego piece. Your kids love to play the lego all the time, but the problem is they also do that in all the places. So that means once they are tired of playing, you are most likely to find the abandoned pieces in the most peculiar of places and eventually on the underside of your foot.
Now addressing the question why does it feel like stepping on a shattered glass bottle tainted in snake venom soaked within a bath of salt, red chilly and lemon juice? The answer is that the pain can be put on the anatomy of the foot. Our feet are incredibly sensitive to pressure, and are wired with thousands of connections that constantly relay information back to the brain which assists us in performing motor functions like balancing and motion.
The other factor to account for is the super strength of Lego, which is able to resist hundreds of kilos of force. To be precise Lego can withstand 432 kilos before structurally failing and breaking due to compression. A regular 2 x 2 lego brick has about the surface area of 2.25 centimetre square. Now, assuming a mass of 75 kilos (exerting 735 Newtons upward on one foot due to the normal force). All that force is then concentrated in one tiny area, equating 734 N/0.000225 m2 . That directly equates to about 3,262,222 pascals of pressure! That is the same as experiencing 32 times the standard atmospheric pressure.
And that’s why stepping on a piece of Lego makes you wish you rather drowned in molten lava. Here’s a cringe worthy video of some “brave” young men deliberately stepping on Lego and then shouting profanities at the Lego and their “bravery” while they do it! Enjoy!
Have any more reasons why stepping on Lego feels like hell? Comment below!
