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Post by rita on Mar 15, 2006 20:53:43 GMT -5
The snow melt and rainy day of the kidnap would not have been a logical day to use a 20 foot ladder for anything. A twenty foot ladder might weigh 40-50 pounds, an average man 150-180, and the 30 pound child would have over weighted the flimsy construction site ladder.
The NJSP story of 3 inch holes would have been made from the weight of the ladder alone, which would mean the ladder had never been used. It must be realized that the legs of the ladder used had approximately 3.5 square inch surface area, and the ladder had a combined weight of 230 to 260 pounds, which would have been forced into the ground with each step made by a climber times the number of steps. This would be equivalent to a 230-280pound pile driver hitting a 3.5 inch square pole into the mud maybe fifteen to twenty times up the ladder and similar strike force down the ladder.
The fairy tale about using the ladder has no real world possibility, and the VDR's have been talking nonsense for years without trying the feat like I did experimentally.
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kevkon
Lt. Colonel
Posts: 2,800
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Post by kevkon on Mar 15, 2006 21:34:29 GMT -5
ASSUMED TOTAL LOAD W/ LADDER 300 Lbs
SURFACE AREA RAIL LEGS 2 x ( 3/4" x 3 5/8") = 5.4375 sq in
LOADING PER SQUARE INCH 300 lbs / 5.4375 sq in = 55.172 lbs/sq in
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Post by rita on Mar 15, 2006 22:22:09 GMT -5
Your math is right, but your use of technical knowledge stops at math, since this would be the same as using a 55 pound sledge hammer to drive a one inch square peg into the soft mud, times the number of steps up and down. If there was fifteen steps in the 20 foot ladder that would have equaled 2 x 15 = 30, or 30 times 55pound blows to the one square inch peg, and I do believe it would have made it dissapear.
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