He is the undisputed world champion of card stacking,but Bryan Berg can't figure out why he still holds the world record for the tallest house of cards,at 7.7 meters,″It's not that damn hard,″ he says . In fact,he regularly teaches second-graders how to do it,and says that four out of five can learn to build a five-story structure after one lesson .
It's all in the technique,he says,and he clearly wants to share it with the whole world through his book,Stacking the Deck . His secret is a four-card cell,where one end of each card supports the middle of another card,and the other end points outward,touching nothing,like a pinwheel . A stack of such of cells has surprising strength . Even a small stack can support a concrete block .He once had 13 people stand on a platform supported by a two-story stack .
Bryan discovered the strength of this structure as a teenager,when a two-meter tower survived for a week in the family living room . So his next step was to try for the world height record, which he successfully set in 1992 by building a tower 4.4 meters tall in his high school gymnasium .
After that,you could say he went professional .″He was contracted to build a huge model stadium using 30,000 baseball cards,in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,New York .He has built several other elaborate models including the Io-wa State Capitol building . He also set a new record for the world's largest house of cards.
Bryan trained as an architect after high school,and got a job teaching architecture at Iowa State University . But he says it's his experience,not his architectural training,that allows him to design bigger and stronger card houses . He does claim,however,that his card stacking helps him judge the strength of real buildings .
A visit to his website will let you see photos of his many architectural triumphs . None of them remain standing for long,and Bryan always takes part in their demolition in order to observe their strengths and weaknesses . Sometimes the structures are quite difficult to knock down . He likes to use a leaf-blower for the task . Huffing and puffing just doesn't work .
被譽(yù)為堆紙牌的世界冠軍,他當(dāng)之無(wú)愧。然而,布賴恩·伯格無(wú)法理解,為什么他創(chuàng)造的世界紀(jì)錄至今還沒(méi)人打破。他說(shuō):“堆紙牌沒(méi)有那么難嘛!”的確,他經(jīng)常給小學(xué)二年級(jí)學(xué)生教授堆牌之術(shù),往往一節(jié)課過(guò)后,4/5的人就能堆出5層高的紙牌了。
他說(shuō):“堆牌全憑技巧?!?為此他寫(xiě)了《堆紙牌》一書(shū),與世人分享他成功的秘訣。他的秘訣是:將四張紙牌分為一組,每張紙牌的一端支撐住另一張紙牌的中部,另一端朝外,如紙風(fēng)車(chē)的風(fēng)頁(yè)。由這樣四張一組的紙牌堆出來(lái)的結(jié)構(gòu)非常堅(jiān)固,即使是小小一堆牌,也足以支撐起一塊水泥磚。他曾經(jīng)堆了兩層高的紙牌,上邊支撐著一塊木板,木板上竟然可以站13個(gè)人。
十幾歲時(shí),布賴恩在自家客廳里堆了一座兩米高的紙牌屋。紙牌屋維持了一星期沒(méi)倒塌,于是他發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種結(jié)構(gòu)的韌性。他決定挑戰(zhàn)世界最高紀(jì)錄。1992年,在他的高中體育館里,布賴恩成功堆出了一個(gè)4.4米高的紙牌屋
在那之后,堆紙牌成了他的職業(yè)。他應(yīng)邀前往紐約州庫(kù)帕鎮(zhèn)的棒球名人廳,在那他用3萬(wàn)張棒球卡堆出了一座大型的體育館模型。此后,他還堆過(guò)幾個(gè)精細(xì)的模型,包括愛(ài)荷華州議會(huì)大廈。他也創(chuàng)下了世界最大紙牌屋的紀(jì)錄。
高中畢業(yè)后,布賴恩接受了建筑師的培訓(xùn),結(jié)業(yè)后在愛(ài)荷華州立大學(xué)教授建筑學(xué)。雖然他宣稱(chēng),他能夠設(shè)計(jì)出更大更結(jié)實(shí)的紙牌屋,主要靠經(jīng)驗(yàn),而并非他所接受的建筑學(xué)培訓(xùn)。但是他不否認(rèn),堆紙牌可以幫助他判斷現(xiàn)實(shí)中建筑物的強(qiáng)度。
在他的網(wǎng)站上,你可以瀏覽到許多出自其手的紙牌建筑杰作。但是這些杰作很快會(huì)被拆除。布賴恩總是親自參與紙牌屋的拆除工作,以便觀察其優(yōu)缺點(diǎn)。有時(shí)候某些結(jié)構(gòu)挺難拆除的。需要用到吹落葉機(jī),因?yàn)榇罂诖禋夥炊黄鹱饔谩?/p>
(摘自《時(shí)代新鮮人》)