Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water

[gregoriol]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/02/all-cetaceans-go-whale-sculpture-stops-dutch-train-crashing-into-water

[Rebelgecko]

Wow, what a great example of nominative determinism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism)

[waste_monk → Rebelgecko]

Perhaps the artist was an apellomancer.

[gregoriol]

I don't know how the builders of this sculpture did their strength calculations, but they were pretty good! For it to handle such a weight, and likely quite a good impact, it is an amazing feat of building.

[ada1981 → gregoriol]

Or maybe they were off by a couple orders of magnitude! Seems like a waste of material and engineering if it wasn’t supposed to support a train. But if an error a fortunate one.

[kd913 → gregoriol]

On the europe subreddit, there were discussions talking about how the sculpture was made of plastic.

[Doxin → gregoriol]

Also mind that this is a light rail subway. If it were a regular train I imagine it might've gone a whole lot less auspiciously.

[AnimalMuppet]

Plastic? That sculpture is plastic? And it still held up a train? Wow.

[erikpukinskis → AnimalMuppet]

Plastic, engineered properly, can be incredibly strong.

99% of plastic products are not engineered to any requirement beyond “this shape, that color”. So we’re not used to seeing proper engineeered plastic. But it’s a wonder material in skilled hands.